UPI transaction limit for medical, educational services to be hiked to ₹5 lakh
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today proposed enhancing the limit of UPI transactions undertaken for medical or healthcare and educational services from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh per transaction.
“The limit for various categories of UPI transactions has been reviewed from time to time. It is now proposed to enhance the UPI transaction limit for payment to hospitals and educational institutions,” Governor Shaktikanta Das said during his monetary policy statement, adding that this will encourage the use of UPI for these purposes.
“This will enable the users who are comfortable with making payments through UPI to continue using the platform for high-value payments as well. 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 MD, Sarvatra Technologies, adding that the decision to hike the limits is a “timely one”.
Currently, the transaction limit for UPI is capped at ₹1 lakh, except a few categories like capital markets (AMC, broking, mutual funds, etc.), collections (credit card payments, loan re-payments, EMI), Insurance etc. where the transaction limit is ₹2 lakh.
In December 2021, the transaction limit for UPI payments for Retail Direct Scheme and IPO subscriptions was increased to ₹5 lakh.
Separate instructions on the roll out of the new transaction limits will be “issued shortly”, RBI said.
“UPI is already the preferred payment method for many patients, but the previous limit of Rs 1 lakh was simply too low, especially for major surgeries in metropolitan and Tier 1 cities. Patients are understandably worried about their treatment during such critical times. Technologies like UPI empower them to focus on getting better without the stress of managing large payments. This will also make it easier for them to handle insurance co-pays and medical loan down payments, eliminating unnecessary hurdles during their treatment,” said Gaurav Gupta, Co-Founder Carepay.