New Delhi: In a significant move to standardize and streamline digital payments, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has announced that Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transaction IDs will no longer contain special characters starting February 1. Any transactions with special characters in their IDs will be automatically rejected by the central system.
The directive, issued through a circular on January 9, instructs all payment service providers to ensure compliance with this new standard. According to the NPCI, only alphanumeric characters will be permitted for generating transaction IDs. This decision is in line with UPI’s technical specifications and aims to enhance the uniformity and efficiency of digital transactions.
“Reference may be taken from our OC 193 dated March 28, 2024, wherein UPI ecosystem players were advised to use only alphanumeric characters for generating UPI transaction ID. This is to ensure compliance with UPI technical specifications,” stated the NPCI in its official release.
UPI Transactions Reach Record Levels
The timing of this regulatory change coincides with UPI transactions hitting record highs. In December 2024, the number of UPI transactions surged to 16.73 billion, marking an 8% increase from 15.48 billion in November, according to NPCI data cited by India TV.
The total transaction value also saw a substantial rise, reaching ₹23.25 lakh crore in December compared to ₹21.55 lakh crore in November. Additionally, the daily average transaction count saw a notable jump to 539.68 million in December, up from 516.07 million in November.
The exponential growth of UPI underscores its dominance in India’s digital payments landscape. As NPCI tightens compliance measures to standardize processes, this move is expected to enhance transaction security and operational efficiency across the ecosystem.
