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UPI users: Big news for UPI users... Such transactions will be blocked from February 1, NPCI changed the rules

Fashion News Era | January 31, 2025 4:39 PM CST

UPI has rapidly replaced cash as a payment option. UPI has now become the main option for payment from e-rickshaws to metro trains and vegetable shops. UPI has made a big change in the rules to make digital transactions easy and secure. National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) is going to block such transactions from February 1 that use special characters in UPI ID. NPCI has issued a circular about this and informed that from February 1, transactions with IDs made of special characters will not be accepted. Users can make payments only through IDs made of alphanumeric characters.

What is the difference between IDs with special characters and alphanumeric characters?

If you are also using a UPI app that uses special characters (for example - @, #, $, ! etc.) in the transaction ID, then the transaction will be rejected by the central system. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) wants to standardize the UPI transaction ID generation process and for this reason has appealed to all payment ecosystem players to use only 'alphanumeric' characters.

In this example, the first transaction ID contains special characters like @, #,! Due to which this ID is invalid. At the same time, the second transaction ID is valid because it contains only letters and numbers.

When will the new rule be implemented

NPCI said in a circular issued on January 9, "We are working with the ecosystem to improve compliance. Although this problem has been resolved to a large extent, it has been observed that some participants are still not complying. Keeping in mind the importance of compliance with the specifications, it has been decided that no special characters will be allowed in the UPI transaction ID. If a transaction ID contains special characters, it will be rejected by the central system. This rule will be effective from February 1, 2025.”

UPI usage for daily transactions has seen a significant increase. As per December 2024 data, UPI transactions reached a record high of 16.73 billion. This is 8% more than the total transactions in November.