Now you can use UPI apps in Bhutan for online payments

NEW DELHI: Bhutan has become the first country to adopt UPI standard for online payments. If you are travelling to Bhutan from India then you will soon be able to use UPI-based apps to make payments. NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), the International arm of National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of Bhutan have partnered together for this development.

Bhutan will also become the second country after Singapore to have BHIM UPI Acceptance at certain merchant locations.

NPCI said that RMA will ensure that the participating NPCI mobile application through UPI QR transactions is accepted at all RMA acquired merchants in Bhutan. “The launch will benefit more than 200,000 tourists from India who travel to Bhutan each year. With this launch, Bhutan will become the first country to adopt Unified Payment Interface (UPI) standards for its QR deployment,” said NPCI in a statement.

Bhutan will also become the only country to both issue & accept RuPay cards as well as accept BHIM UPI. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant real-time payment system, allowing users to transfer money on a real-time basis, across multiple bank accounts without revealing details of one’s bank account to the other party.

“In 2020, UPI enabled commerce worth $457 billion, which is equivalent to approximately 15% of India’s GDP,” said NPCI in a statement.

Apart from tourists, this will also help residents of Bhutan to opt for cashless payments to shopkeepers.

Meanwhile, There are 50 third party UPI apps in India. However, PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm and Amazon Pay are the major UPI players in the market. The majority of UPI transactions, as high as 80% of the total UPI volume, are driven by either PhonePe or Google Pay.