Holidaying in Bhutan? Use BHIM app to pay bills

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With mobility restrictions easing, the scare of Covid-19 is gradually giving way to exuberance. With people rushing out for vacations, the National Payments Corporation of India has announced that our neighbour Bhutan will accept BHIM UPI across the country.

NPCI and the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of Bhutan have partnered for enabling and implementing BHIM UPI QR-based payments in the picturesque country. The service was formally launched by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and others on July 13.

Bhutan first

Bhutan is the first country to adopt India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) standards for its quick response (QR) code. It is also the second country after Singapore to have BHIM-UPI acceptance at merchant locations.

“People from India can pay without any problem from Tuesday onwards by using BHIM UPI. BHIM-UPI is one of the achievements of India in terms of fin-tech space is concerned. Over 2,00,000 tourists from India travel to Bhutan every year. Hope they would experience a smooth payment in Bhutan,” said the Union finance minister.

BHIM is India’s digital payment app that works through UPI, a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application.

The collaboration between NPCL and RMA will enable acceptance of the UPI-based BHIM app in Bhutan.

“RMA will ensure that the participating NPCI mobile application through UPI QR transactions is accepted at all RMA acquired merchants in Bhutan,” NIPL said in a statement.

RuPay card eligible

Not only BHIM UPI, but Bhutan is also the first country to accept India’s RuPay card.

UPI is an instant real-time payment system, allowing users to transfer money on a real-time basis, across multiple bank accounts without revealing details of one’s bank account to the other party.

“Our vision has always been focused on taking our homegrown robust and popular online payments solutions to global markets”, said Ritesh Shukla, CEO, NPCI International Payments Limited.

BHIM UPI figure

Till date, the BHIM app has been downloaded in India 17.5 crore times. As of June 21, as many as 188 banks are on this platform. Per month, on average, financial transactions worth Rs 7,200 crore is processed through BHIM UPI.

In the fiscal year 2021, it processed 22 billion financial transactions worth Rs 42 lakh crore, NPCI data show.

BHIM UPI is one of the simple, safe, cost-effective mobile-based payments systems. In FY 2020, UPI-enabled commerce in India recorded transactions worth USD 457 billion, which is equivalent to approximately 15% of India’s GDP.