The approaching New Year brings with it modifications to the UPI interface that we make use of. You should be aware of a few significant changes that UPI has planned for the upcoming year. The new regulations that will take effect on January 1st might potentially cause you to lose access to your UPI ID. Continue reading to learn more.
Inactive UPI IDs to get Disabled
First off, in a circular sent by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), it is requested that digital payment providers delete UPI IDs for users who haven’t used them in more than a year. Users with inactive UPI IDs now have until December 31, 2023, to finish creating and activating their IDs, after which they will be removed.
Let me tell you exactly what will happen, so don’t panic just yet. Payment service providers and third-party app developers will detect UPI IDs that haven’t been used in more than a year and deactivate them exclusively for inbound transactions. You won’t be able to receive money on your deactivated UPI ID, but you may still make payments with it.
UPI Tap and Pay
Second, the NPCI is trying to get digital payment companies to implement the “UPI Tap and Pay” functionality. This happens shortly after the NPCI revealed information on the feature and said it will launch shortly. According to a recent circular, UPI customers will be able to access the capability by January 31, 2024. It is important to remember that this date is only suggested for digital payment companies. If they have to roll out the feature, it can take longer.
I’ll explain how this functionality operates in brief. Traditionally, to conduct UPI payments, we utilise the cameras on our smartphones together with a QR Code. When this functionality is made available to the general public, it will obtain information about a payee’s Virtual Payment Address (VPA) or UPI ID via near-field communication (NFC) technology. This function can only be used with devices that support NFC.
