Non-resident Indians (NRI) from ten countries can soon transfer funds online using the unified payments interface (UPI) using their Non-Resident (External) Rupee (NRE) or Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) bank accounts. The National Payments Corporation of India earlier said in a circular asked UPI participants to devise a mechanism by April 30 that will allow NRIs to make digital payments without having to get an Indian mobile number.
As a pilot project, NCPI is enabling ten countries for online transaction. Indians having mobile numbers with country codes of these ten nations will be able to transact digitally. “To begin with, we shall be enabling transaction from mobile numbers having the country code of (10 nations)… and shall extend for other country codes in near future…,” the circular said.
The list countries include the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. NRIs or Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) residing in these countries can open NRE accounts, whereas Indians in these countries can open NRO accounts to make payments.
List of countries with their codes
| Countries | Code |
| United States | +1 |
| United Kingdom | +44 |
| Canada | +1 |
| Australia | +61 |
| Singapore | +65 |
| Oman | +968 |
| Saudi Arabia | +966 |
| UAE | +971 |
| Qatar | +974 |
| Hong Kong | +852 |
The condition for UPI participants is to follow Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regulations and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines time to time. According to the chairman of Payments Council of India Vishwas Patel, the major convenience factor after implementing the initiative will be for NRIs visiting India.
“NRIs will just need to link their NRE and NRO accounts linked to their international SIM to UPI and use it like any other Indian UPI user for merchant payment as well as peer-to-peer payments,” founder of Sarvatra Technologies Mandar Agashe told.
