UPI daily payment limit raised to ₹10 lakh for select transactions, fraud risks kept in check

India’s UPI system has enabled high-value transactions, allowing users to pay up to ₹10 lakh a day for investments, insurance, travel, credit cards, and jewellery, starting today. It is simultaneously scrapping the P2P “collect request” feature from October to prevent fraud.

The move, announced by the National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI), aims to make high-value Person-to-Merchant (P2M) payments faster and reduce reliance on slower channels like cheques.

For capital markets and insurance, the per transaction limit has doubled to ₹5 lakh from ₹2 lakh, with a daily cap raised to ₹10 lakh. These same limits now apply to government e-marketplace transactions, travel bookings, loan repayments, and EMIs.

Credit card bill payments can now be made up to ₹5 lakh per transaction, up from ₹2 lakh, with a daily cap of ₹6 lakh, increased from ₹5 lakh. In jewellery purchases, the per transaction limit remains at ₹2 lakh, but the daily ceiling rises to ₹6 lakh.

Hospital and education payments, whose daily limits had already been raised to ₹10 lakh from ₹5 lakh in earlier circulars, remain unchanged. For per transaction, too, cap stays at ₹5 lakh and investments in government securities, including via the RBI Direct platform, have a ₹10 lakh daily limit.

“While NPCI fixes the maximum permissible limit, banks can still impose lower caps depending on their risk assessment,” said Ankit Bagadia, Associate Director, BankBazaar.

He added that while several people-centric segments have already been covered, real estate transactions and automobile purchases remain good-to-have categories for future inclusion.

The changes mark a significant push to make UPI a platform not just for everyday payments, but for high-value transactions like investments, insurance, and large bill payments. At the same time, ending the P2P collect feature reflects NPCI’s efforts to curb fraud, signalling a tightening of controls as the platform handles larger sums.

Higher limits, lower fraud risk

Industry experts say the move will ease business payments without raising fraud risk, as the higher limits apply only to verified merchants. Person-to-Person (P2P) limits remain unchanged at ₹1 lakh per day.

“It’s reassuring that limits have been raised only for select merchants. This will speed up high-value transactions and reduce reliance on cheques, without raising fraud risks. The standard ₹1 lakh limit for P2P ensures everyday transactions remain safe,” said Samit Singh, ex-banker and founder of Happy Retirement.

P2P ‘collect request’ to end

NPCI has directed that from 1 October, the P2P “collect request” feature on UPI will be discontinued. “This means individuals will no longer be able to send or receive collect requests; payments can be made only via QR code scans or by entering UPI IDs,” said Bagadia.

The NPCI circular released on 29 July said, “All member banks, payment service providers (PSPs), and UPI apps are directed to ensure that no P2P Collect transaction is initiated, routed or processed on UPI beyond October 1, 2025.”

The move is intended to protect gullible users from fraudsters misusing this route to collect payments disguised as rewards and cashbacks.