UPI Lite limit increased: Now wallet up to Rs 5,000 and facility of Rs 1,000 per transaction

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the limit of UPI Lite to make digital transactions easier and more accessible. Now the wallet limit under UPI Lite has been increased to Rs 5,000, while the transaction limit once has been made Rs 1,000. This will provide great relief to customers who are making small and fast transactions.

UPI Lite is a feature where customers can make offline transactions without internet connectivity. Under this, an additional factor of authentication (AFA) is not required and transaction-related alerts are also not sent in real-time. Its main objective is to make small-value transactions faster and smoother.

RBI said in a circular that the limit of offline payment of UPI Lite has now been increased to Rs 1,000 per transaction. Apart from this, the total limit of the wallet has been increased to Rs 5,000. At present, a maximum limit of Rs 500 at a time and a total limit of Rs 2,000 is applicable for offline payments.

RBI introduced a framework for offline transactions in January 2022, which has now been revised. In October 2024, the central bank announced the increase in the limit of UPI Lite, which has now been formally implemented.

The increased limit will especially benefit those customers who frequently use UPI for small transactions. Now even without internet connectivity, customers can quickly make payments of up to Rs 1,000, which will ease transactions for everyday needs.

However, the total transactions of UPI saw a decline in November 2024. While there were 16.58 billion transactions through UPI in October, this number came down to 15.48 billion in November. Similarly, the total value also declined from Rs 23.50 lakh crore in October to Rs 21.55 lakh crore in November. This decline after the festivals is being considered as a seasonal effect.