The Reserve Bank on Friday raised the UPI payment limit for hospitals and educational institutions from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 5 lakhs. The central Bank also hiked e-mandates for recurring payments to Rs 1 lakh.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, while Releasing the December bi-monthly monetary policy, said  "The limits on various types of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions are being reviewed from time to time."

The enhanced limit will enable users to make higher UPI payments for educational and healthcare expenses. The governor informed that e-mandates are popular among consumers for repeat payments. Currently under the e-mandate framework, an additional Authentication Factor (AFA) is required for consecutive transactions above Rs 15,000.

"It is now proposed to raise this limit to Rs 1 lakh per transaction for recurring payments of mutual fund subscriptions, insurance premium subscriptions, and credit card repayments," said Shaktikanta Das.

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The governor said that It would be implemented by the RBI Innovation Center on or before April 2024. Fintechs are encouraged to voluntarily contribute relevant information to this repository, he added.

RBI To create cloud infrastructure

Das said the central bank is working to create cloud infrastructure for the financial sector in India. Banks and financial institutions deal with ever-increasing amounts of data.

The cloud facility facilitates better scalability and business continuity. Das said the cloud facility should be designed in a calibrated manner for the medium term.

Repo rate unchanged

Reserve Bank of India, in its bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.50 percent for the fifth consecutive time. The RBI's committee revised the repo rate by 250 bps between May 2022 to December 2022.

The Monetary Committee's decision gave a boost to stock market as the Nifty 50 crossed the 21000 mark for the first time. The majority of banking stocks are also trading in the green mark. 

(With Agency Inputs)

Also read: RBI Keeps Repo Rates Unchanged At 6.5% For Fifth Consecutive Time