PhonePe UPI payments launched in Sri Lanka

NEW DELHI: Bengaluru-based PhonePe has partnered with LankaPay and launched PhonePeUPI payments in Sri Lanka, a facility that can spur Indian tourism in the island nation and provide a boost to the local economy.

At an event to mark the collaboration, PhonePe said its app users travelling to Sri Lanka can make payments using UPI (Unified Payments Interface) across LankaPay QR merchants.

The transactions will be facilitated by the UPI and LankaPay National Payment Network. Users can scan LankaQR code to make secure and quick payments without carrying cash or calculating currency conversions. The amount will be debited in Indian currency, showing the currency exchange rate.

The launch event was attended by India's high commissioner to Sri Lanka, Santosh Jha, and the governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, along with banking sector executives, payments system providers and business associations.

Jha said at the launch that the ease of a familiar digital payments system would encourage tourism from India. He also urged Sri Lankan firms to engage with Indian companies to build on the UPI stack for innovations in hotel bookings, cab bookings and delivery services.

Indian tourists have majorly contributed to boosting Sri Lanka's economy, which faced its worst crisis in 2022, resulting in a political change of guard.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe jointly inaugurated the launch of UPI services in Sri Lanka, in collaboration with LankaPay, on February 12.