Forget cards and wallets! Recurring payments up to Rs 2000 with UPI is possible now

UPI recurring payment: According to RBI, the limit for e-mandate based recurring transactions without AFA is Rs 2,000 per transaction.

Forget cards and wallets! Recurring payments up to Rs 2000 with UPI is possible now


UPI Recurring Payment: Customers will now be able to sign up and pay for products such as Mutual Fund SIP and insurance that involve recurring payments with UPI. This facility was earlier available only for card and wallet-based payments. The  Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday said it would permit processing of e-mandate on recurring transactions via the unified payments interface (UPI) system.

“On a review of the developments since this facilitation, it has been decided to extend the above instructions to cover UPI transactions as well. All the instructions/conditions outlined in the circular under reference would apply, mutatis mutandis, while processing e-mandate in UPI,” RBI said in a notification on Friday.

In August Last year, the central bank had allowed processing of e-mandate on cards for recurring transactions. “The e-mandate arrangement on cards shall be only for recurring transactions and not for a ‘once-only’ payment,” RBI had said last year.

RBI had then further said, “A cardholder desirous of opting for e-mandate facility on card shall undertake a one-time registration process, with AFA validation by the issuer. An e-mandate on card for recurring transactions shall be registered only after successful AFA validation, in addition to the normal process required by the issuer.” This facility will now also be available for UPI users.

What’s new

With the new facility, UPI users will be able to bypass additional factor authentication (AFA) required for each payment to a regular merchant. UPI users will now be able to make regular payments by giving a one-time instruction to UPI service providers.

Transaction limit

According to RBI, the limit for e-mandate based recurring transactions without AFA is Rs 2,000 per transaction. Transactions above this cap are also subject to AFA. The limit of Rs 2,000 per transaction is applicable for all categories of merchants who accept repetitive payments based on such e-mandates.

No charges will be levied on such transactions from the user availing the e-mandate facility.