New UPI rules from August 1 to speed up transactions: Know the changes
UPI users are rising fast in number as more and more people keep adopting this modern convenient mode of transaction and the ability to discontinue the burdensome use of cash. In order to make the system even faster, NCPI is introducing some changes.
Kolkata: How often do you check your UPI app to know the outstanding balance in the bank accounts linked to the app? Admittedly it is one of the easiest routes of checking the balance in the savings account linked to the PI-based app like PhonePe, G-Pay, Paytm, BHIM etc. But, quite imperceptibly to the user, these requests also slow down the speed of transaction for the average user. This becomes more acute during the busy hours, when the system gets millions of requests simultaneously.
This is going to change from August 1, 2025. NCPI, or the National Payments Corporation of India, which is the developer and agency in charge of UPI, has decided to introduce new rules which will regulate non-transactional requests. The broad objective of these changes is to raise efficiency of the system and curb traffic that are non-transactional and can impede transactions.
Incidentally, over the past nine years since UPI was introduced in April 2016, the system has been facing rise in user traffic extremely fast. For example, in June 2025, the total number of transactions in UPI was 18.39 billion transactions, data from NCPI show. Given June had 30 days, this translates to a tempestuous 7094 transactions per second on an average. This is the sort of transactional traffic that UPI has to handle. More challenging, the traffic is continuously rising.
Therefore, the need to restrict some backend requests or API (application programming interface) calls to free up capacity to handle more and more traffic. The government is trying to push UPI beyond the borders of India in a strategic move and the need of the hour is to keep pushing the envelope on efficiency.
Checking account balance to be restricted
According to reports, NCPI might be restricting checking the bank account balance up to 50 times per app every day. Banks could also be asked to show the balance in the account after every transaction ie, payment done from that account. There is no limit on balance enquiries now.
There could also be a limit to view linked accounts to 25 requests per day a day. Reports have also stated that the network will process mandates for autopay after the peak hours. These are the time windows between 10 am and 1 pm and 5 pm and 9:30 pm. Accordingly, autopay mandates like EMI payments, utility bills and subscription fees will now be processed during certain time windows. Round-the-clock processing will be dispensed with to free up resources for speedier transactions.
These changes have to be incorporated by July 31. Compliance reports have to be furnished by the end of August and failure to can meet with penalties and even restrictions on enlisting new users.