Paytm, PhonePe to launch UPI Lite for smaller epayments soon: Report

Paytm and PhonePe are likely to launch the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) Lite on their mobile applications soon, a report by the Economic Times (ET) said. On Paytm, the feature is expected to be enabled within a month.

 

UPI Lite was introduced by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) last year to facilitate small ticket transactions up to Rs 200. It is an on-device wallet feature that allows payments using UPI PIN. 

 

"Paytm is likely to go live with its UPI Lite product on its app within a month, and PhonePe is expected to enable the offering after Paytm, which is closest to being live right now," a person aware of the matter told ET. 

 

In India, PhonePe is the largest UPI payments player. In December, it clocked 3.67 billion UPI transactions worth Rs 6.39 trillion. It is followed by Google Pay and Paytm. 

 

How will UPI Lite work?

 

To make the payment, the users must add funds from their bank accounts to the UPI Lite wallet. For a real-time payment, users will not need the internet as it is an on-device wallet. The total limit of UPI Lite balance for an on-device wallet will be Rs 2,000 at any time. 

 

The maximum limit of one transaction will be Rs 200.  

 

In phase-1 of its rollout, UPI Lite will process transactions in near offline mode. This means that debit payments can be made without internet connectivity; however, credit payments will be made into the account with the help of the internet. However, UPI Lite is expected to become offline in the future, where debit and credit payments can be processed without an internet connection.