UPI’s ‘Tap and Pay’ function to reduce offline transaction woes in India

How often does it happen that you are about to make a payment and there is no internet connectivity? This embarrassing situation either leads you to abandon the transaction for lack of cash or makes everyone wait until you find the required cash. But now, this worry can be done away with because the National Payments Corporation of India is on its way to develop and soon introduce ‘tap and pay’ facilities for UPI transactions. This would be a great boost for those who use the UPI app and also suffer from frequent connectivity issues, for whatever reason may be.

What does the ‘tap and pay’ function mean?

Since the UPI is the most preferred method of transaction today, organizations are trying to make this experience smoother. This time, by introducing the ‘tap and pay’ method! Under this method, you have the option of pre-loading up to Rs 2000 on a UPI lite wallet. This wallet is where from the offline transaction will take place without the use of any PIN or internet connectivity. All you have to do is tap your phone to the payment receiving device and the magic will happen. It is almost the same as the ‘tap and pay’ option for your credit / debit cards.

Details of your transaction will automatically sync and show up on our records once internet connectivity is restored. But till then, you would not have to wait with a frustrated face due to payment being held up. Once the pilot project is introduced in the market, other notable stake holders may also join in to ease up the process.

Primarily you will need two basic parameters to start using this feature. An NFC enabled mobile phone and a bank and UPI app which supports offline payments.  

A security concern

With payment becoming so easy, many users might have the concern if it is safe?  What if the phone falls in the hands of a wrong person then will their money be secure? To answer these valid woes, there will be a transaction limit set to the entire process. This means that even if you lose some money it will not be as fatal as losing your entire bank balance. Moreover, to be able to land on the transaction page, there will be proper authentication protocols meaning passwords or numerical pin (not transaction pin) that is usually known to the user themselves.

How does it change the transaction experience?

The major benefit of this feature will be able to make payment where there is no connectivity. It often happens that you are underground at a metro station, at a remote train station, at a hill station with no or poor network, making transactions during an internet outage or at a place which is so crowded that internet becomes slow and unsteady for all. Under all these circumstances, the ‘tap and pay’ feature will come to your rescue.

Difference between UPI tap and pay and UPI Lite

You may have déjà vu upon hearing UPI ‘tap and pay’ functions and try to match it with those of UPI Lite. The latter feature though limited to a small –amount transaction through a wallet, still needs the internet connectivity. However, the former does not need any internet to successfully complete the transactions.  

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