UPI 123 Pay: Key changes to come into effect before January 1

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had extended the transaction limit from ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 for UPI 123Pay on October 9. As a follow up, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has issued a circular telling the members (including banks and service providers) to ensure that the new limits are adhered to.

Those who are unaware, UPI 123PAY enables digital payments on feature phones to access UPI services without internet connection. There are four payment methods which are available with UPI 123PAY. These are through IVR numbers, missed calls, OEM-embedded apps and sound-based technology.

Although these changes are to be rolled out with immediate effect, the NPCI has issued a deadline of Jan 1, 2025 to banks, PSBs and service providers for these changes to come into effect.

Key changes to come into effect before Jan 1, 2025.

1. The transaction limit is to be raised from ₹5,000 to ₹10,000.

2. Onboarding for these transactions to be implemented with Aadhaar OTP in UPI 123Pay.

3. The members will collectively identify and tag UPI 123Pay transactions as per the rules given below:

A.) New purpose code 86 is issued for UPI 123Pay transactions. All 123Pay transactions should be passed with purpose code 86 in the purpose=" "tag for financial and non financial transactions.

B.) Initiation modes to be passed as per UPI procedural guidelines. Earlier allotted initiation mode =31 will be considered null and void.

C.) Initiation channel

On call based: <Tag name= "TYPE" value = "IVR"/>

Feature phone based application: <Tag name = "TYPE" value = "FP"/>

Missed call based: <Tag name = "TYPE" value = "MCP"/>

Sound frequency based: <Tag name = "TYPE" value = "TONE"/>

4. The members will implement UPI number functionality through integration with UPI numeric ID mapper.

Apart from UPI 123Pay, RBI had raised the limit of UPI Lite wallet as well from ₹2,000 to ₹5,000 and each transaction limit from ₹500 to ₹1,000.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had then said that the limits were raised because UPI has changed India's financial landscape significantly by making digital payments more accessible and inclusive through ongoing innovation. He also mentioned that these changes were done to further promote UPI adoption.