The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), overseeing the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), has instructed banks and payment apps like Google Pay, Paytm, and PhonePe to deactivate UPI IDs and numbers for users with no transactions in the past year. The deadline for this deactivation is December 31, and starting January, inactive users for over a year won’t be able to receive funds on their UPI IDs, as per NPCI’s circular.
The decision was taken to prevent inadvertent fund transfers to unintended recipients in cases where customers change their mobile numbers without unlinking their old number from the banking system. According to NPCI’s circular, “All TPAPs and PSP banks are required to identify UPI IDs, associated UPI numbers, and phone numbers of customers with no financial (debit or credit) or non-financial transactions for a period of one year from UPI apps.”
The circular issued on November 7 to all UPI members specified that UPI IDs and UPI numbers belonging to customers with no transactions for a year will be deactivated for inward credit transactions.
Also read: Benefits of Linking UPI With Credit Card
Key guidelines include the obligation for third-party applications and payment service provider (PSP) banks to identify UPI IDs, associated UPI numbers, and phone numbers of customers inactive for one year in terms of financial or non-financial transactions.
Those with blocked inward credit UPI IDs and phone numbers must re-register in their UPI apps for UPI mapper linkage to resume payments and non-financial transactions using UPI Pin. Additionally, UPI apps are mandated to conduct requester validation (ReqValAd) prior to initiating ‘pay-to-contact’ or ‘pay to mobile number’.
