Time’s Up! Deactivate These UPI IDs Before the Deadline – Find Out When!
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has taken a proactive step to improve the security and dependability of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system. In a recent circular, the NPCI has instructed major third-party UPI apps like Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe, and others to deactivate UPI IDs and numbers that have been inactive for more than a year.
NPCI, a non-profit organization that oversees retail payment and settlement systems in India, stresses that this measure is necessary to prevent unintended transfers of funds to unintended recipients. The risk arises when customers change their mobile phone number without removing the old numbers from the banking system, because it is possible that the old mobile phone numbers can be assigned to new subscribers.
A recent Supreme Court judgment has emphasized that mobile phone operators cannot be restricted from handing over deactivated or disconnected numbers to new subscribers after the statutory 90 days.
According to the new guidelines outlined in the circular, Third Party Application Providers (TPAPs) and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) are required to take the following steps and implement them by 31 December 2023.
1. All TPAP and PSP banks have been asked to identify UPI IDs and associated UPI numbers and phone numbers of customers who have not completed any financial (debit or credit) or other transactions from UPI applications for 1 year.
2. The UPI IDs and UPI numbers of such customers must be blocked in connection with internal credit transactions. This means they cannot receive money from these numbers. In addition, payment service providers must de-register the same phone number from UPI as well.
3. Customers whose UPI IDs and phone numbers have been blocked must re-register with their UPI apps for UPI mapper linking. Suits can make payments and non-financial transactions using the UPI pin as needed.
4. UPI applications must complete Requester Validation (ReqValAd) before initiating “Pay-to-contact” and “Pay to mobile number” operations. UPI apps must display the customer’s name that is retrieved before the transaction is initiated and must not display the name that is stored at the end of the application.
This directive applies to all UPI applications, including TPAPs and PSP banks, and the deadline for its implementation has been set to 31 December 2023. NPCI emphasizes the importance of communicating this directive promptly to all relevant stakeholders to take necessary action.
