UPI payment limit to hospitals, educational institutes raised to Rs 5 lakh
Mumbai, Dec 8, 2023
The hospital and education industry have cheered the regulator's move on hiking the transaction limit on UPI
The Reserve Bank of India on Friday hiked the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payment limit for hospitals and educational institutions from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per transaction to encourage the use of UPI at these places.
The limit for a UPI transaction is currently capped at Rs 1 lakh except in a few categories like capital markets and collections which include credit card payments, loan repayments, and insurance, among others, where the transaction limit is capped at Rs 2 lakh.
“To encourage the use of UPI for medical and educational services, it is proposed to enhance the limit for payments to hospitals and educational institutions from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per transaction. Separate instructions will be issued shortly,” the regulator said in a statement.
The hospital and education industry have cheered the regulator’s move on hiking the transaction limit on UPI.
“As a leading healthcare provider, Fortis Healthcare sees this as a positive development that will streamline payment processes and also ensure transparency. This significant enhancement is a progressive step towards facilitating larger transactions, particularly in the healthcare sector,” said Vivek Kumar Goyal, Chief Financial Officer, Fortis Healthcare Limited.
Players in the financial sector believe increasing the transaction limit would assist users in making large value payments that are time-sensitive.
“Due to the ease of payments offered by it, UPI is emerging as a preferred mode of payments for not only small-value transactions but also for large-value transactions. The transaction limit would no longer be a bottleneck which refrains the user from using UPI, especially when it comes to payments which are urgent in nature,” said Mandar Agashe, founder and managing director, Sarvatra Technologies; a payment and banking solutions provider.
Similarly, participants in the edtech sector expect the announcement to apply to players involved in digital upskilling and online education space.
“It should logically include online education players. However, we need to wait for the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) guidelines to give a formal confirmation,” a person from the edtech industry said, requesting anonymity.
“Today’s announcement by RBI on increasing the transaction limits of UPI from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for hospitals and educational institutions will help consumers to do larger transactions, potentially facilitating smoother and more substantial payments in these two crucial sectors,” said Ramesh Narasimhan, CEO, Worldline India.
[Business Standard]
