NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) and Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of Bhutan have entered a partnership for enabling and implementing BHIM UPI QR-based payments in Bhutan.

Bhutan will become the first country to adopt UPI standards for its QR deployment. It will also become the only country to both issue and accept RuPay cards as well as accept BHIM UPI.

“This facility will benefit more than 2,00,000 tourists from India who travel to Bhutan each year,” NPCI said.

The service is formally launched by the finance minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman today at a virtual ceremony in presence of the finance minister of Bhutan, Lyonpo Namgay Tshering, governor of Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan, among others.

The collaboration between NIPL and RMA will enable acceptance of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) powered BHIM app in Bhutan.

And RMA will ensure that the participating NPCI mobile application through UPI QR transactions is accepted at all RMA acquired merchants in Bhutan.

“The service will be formally launched by Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman on July 13,” NPCI further said.

In 2020, UPI enabled commerce worth $457 billion, which is equivalent to approximately 15% of India’s GDP.

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

Image Source: BHIM portal