Big relief for Indian tourists! UPI payments coming soon to Indonesia

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the initiative after holding bilateral talks with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta on Tuesday (July 7).

Addressing the joint press statement, Modi highlighted the importance of people-to-people ties in strengthening bilateral relations.

"People-to-people ties are the greatest strength of our relationship," the Prime Minister said.

He added, "We are delighted that India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will soon be integrated with Indonesia’s payment system. This will further enhance both the ease of doing business and the ease of travel between our two countries."

The integration is expected to allow Indian travellers to make seamless digital payments in Indonesia using UPI-enabled apps, reducing the need for cash or currency exchange while boosting cross-border digital transactions.

What is UPI?

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a real-time digital payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). It enables users to link multiple bank accounts to a single UPI-enabled application, allowing instant fund transfers, merchant payments, and other banking services through a unified platform.

According to the NPCI, UPI empowers users to add multiple bank and other eligible accounts from participating banks to a single app, bringing together various banking features, seamless fund transfers, and merchant payments under one platform.