In a recent circular dated April 8, 2025, NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) has disabled all QR share and pay-based international UPI transactions, which are P2M (Person to Merchant), effective April 4, 2025. According to the circular, “QR Share & Pay shall not be allowed for all UPI Global P2M transactions and Payer PSP to ensure that Payer UPI app identify the same.”Say you buy something from a shop or merchant who is based abroad. They share their QR code with you to make a payment, and the same is saved in your phone gallery. Now, if you scan this QR, you will not be able to make any payments. “However, live or physical scanning of QR codes at merchant locations will still be possible,” clarifies Jai Kumar, co-founder of TechFini.
At present, as per the NPCI website, around 7 countries, including France, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and the UAE, accept India’s UPI-based Bharat QR payments.
Let us understand how it can impact the users and merchants.
What is QR Share and Pay? Will I be able to make domestic transactions using QR?
Previously, merchants, especially smaller ones, could send their QR codes via WhatsApp and other social media channels to buyers. Once this would be saved in the user’s photo gallery, they could then scan it using their PSP (payment service provider) apps, such as Paytm or PhonePe, and make the payment. This was possible for merchants based both abroad and within India.
However, going ahead, making QR-based UPI payments internationally will not be allowed through the QR share and pay method. Payment Service Providers (PSPs) have been asked to ensure that their UPI applications identify and block such international QR share-and-pay-based transactions. As for domestic QR share & pay-based transactions, the circular notes that “QR share & pay shall have a limit of Rs 2,000/- for all P2M (non-verified offline merchants) and payer PSP to ensure that the payer UPI app identify the same. This simply implies that if, even within India, the merchant to whom you are making a QR-based payment is not registered with NPCI, you will not be able to pay them more than Rs 2,000 at once via the QR share & pay method. Notably, the domestic limits of Rs 2,000 have already been in force for a long time, and the changes have only been introduced for international transactions.
Rahul Jain, CFO, NTT DATA Payment Services India, highlights that this is needed since P2M transactions, especially with unverified international merchants, could lead to potential frauds since QR codes can be tampered with and used by scammers to steal data and funds.
However, Kumar highlights that this restricts one of the most convenient methods of making payments abroad for frequent international travellers and NRIs.
“With this feature now blocked for international payments, users must rely solely on live scanning of QR codes at physical merchant locations or other supported methods. Although the feature will still be allowed for domestic transactions, it is subject to certain restrictions and merchant verification guidelines. By disabling remote QR payments, NPCI and banks can better control how and where international transactions are initiated, potentially improving transaction oversight and limiting exposure to unauthorized or high-risk transactions”, he explains.
According to him, the move appears to be aimed at tightening control over international UPI usage to improve security. “It also reduces convenience and flexibility for Indian users transacting abroad, particularly in non-face-to-face payment scenarios”, adds Kumar.
No more collect requests for loading wallets, prepaid cards
The circular further pushes out the loading of wallets or prepaid cards by individuals via collect request. Typically, in a collect request, the merchant initiates the transaction, which then has to be accepted and approved by the customer. In essence, via a collect request, a merchant is collecting or pulling funds from the customers’ accounts. In recent times, there have been multiple reported cases of frauds and scams due to collect requests
Explains Rohit Mahajan, Managing Partner and Founder, plutos ONE, “NPCI has reiterated its decision to phase out the vulnerable ‘Collect Payments’ option that was specific to unverified merchants. By disabling this feature, NPCI is prioritizing safer alternative forms of transaction via QR code payments and direct push payments”.
While NPCI had been planning to phase out collect requests for some time now, the circular specifically disallows customers from replenishing their prepaid wallet or a gift or prepaid card by means of a collect request. Now, customers will have to initiate the transaction themselves or generate a push request in order to load their wallets or load a gift card.
