Kathmandu: NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the international arm of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthen digital payment connectivity between India and Nepal through seamless cross-border payment. This is reflected in the growing adoption of QR-based UPI payments in Nepal from Indian travellers and the recently launched remittances linkage between India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Nepal’s National Payments Interface (NPI), enabling real-time person-to-person (P2P) transfers between the two countries.
UPI, India’s real-time, account-to-account payment system, processes over 23 billion financial transactions monthly and is recognised by the IMF as the world’s largest payment system, powering nearly 50% of global real-time payments. Its open and interoperable architecture has enabled seamless integration with Nepal’s domestic payment infrastructure, for both merchant QR acceptance and P2P remittances.
India remains among the leading source of tourist arrivals into Nepal each year with over 290,000 visitor arrivals in 2025, driven by travel for leisure, pilgrimage, trade, and family ties. For such travellers, acceptance of UPI empowers them to make seamless and instant payments at merchants across Nepal, including popular tourist destinations and pilgrimage sites such as Chandragiri Hills, Manakamana Temple, and Pashupatinath Temple, among others, reducing the need to carry or exchange physical cash. Merchants acquired through the Fonepay network are equipped to accept UPI payments seamlessly, extending UPI acceptance across retail, hospitality, and everyday commerce.
Beyond enhancing convenience for travellers, UPI also creates meaningful value for merchants in Nepal. By accepting UPI payments, merchants gain access to a large, digitally savvy customer base while benefiting from faster digital payments, improved cash flow management, and reduced reliance on physical currency, helping drive greater operational efficiency and business growth.
Alongside this, the UPI-NPI linkage with Nepal Clearing House Ltd. (NCHL) enables real-time P2P transfers in both directions. Indian and Nepalese users can send money to Nepal using the receiver’s mobile number or virtual payment address (VPA), while Indian users in Nepal can transfer funds back to India using UPI IDs. This removes the need to share sensitive bank account details, offering simplified and secure payment experience for millions of families and individuals who depend on timely, affordable remittances between the two countries.
Ritesh Shukla, MD & CEO of NPCI International, said, “In Nepal, our efforts are aimed at expanding digital payment acceptance, simplifying transactions for Indian travellers, and enabling faster, more affordable remittances for families across the India-Nepal corridor.” “Together with Fonepay and NCHL, we are driving secure, real-time payment solutions that strengthen economic linkages and deepen the longstanding people-to-people ties between India and Nepal.”
Building on this strong foundation, NIPL said, it will continue to collaborate with regulators and ecosystem partners in Nepal to drive greater usage of UPI-powered payment solutions, enhance cross-border payment experiences, and extend the P2P remittance linkage to more banks, further strengthening the digital and economic ties between India and Nepal.
