Uber riders can now pay for trips using UPI

Mumbai: Having no change or insufficient Uber money will not be a problem anymore as the cab-hailing app on Wednesday rolled out UPI based payments in partnership with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), HDFC and Axis Bank.

In a bid to promote a “cashless India”, Uber launched UPI or United Payments Corporation based payments that will enable customers to make payments directly from their bank accounts, without having to rely on mobile wallets, cash or debit card information.

Here is how it works:

According to a report in the Indian Express, Union Minister of Electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was present at the launch said “Indian digital economy is poised for big growth. When I say I growth, I mean in communications, cyber security, IT services, digital payments, electronic manufacturing. Digital payments in India are worth $500 billion, and the government of India wants to scale this to $1 trillion. The integration of Uber app with UPI-BHIM will boost the digital economy of India further”.

There will be no need for the customer to wait for an OTP, which is often a problem with debit card based payments. The rider can create a UPI ID via the app or even use the one they have synced with BHIM app.

Uber claims to have touched 9.4 million Uber trips a week in India this July.