UPI Transactions to be blocked if not compatible with new norms of NPCI

NDC Team

New Delhi

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has mandated the standardization of UPI transaction ID, prohibiting the use of special characters in transaction IDs from February 1, 2024. As per the directive, UPI payment applications must generate transaction IDs using only alphanumeric characters, ensuring compliance with UPI technical specifications.

In an official circular issued on January 9, NPCI reiterated its earlier communication (OC 193 dated March 28, 2024), urging all payment ecosystem participants to adhere to this requirement. The central system will reject any transaction ID containing special characters such as #, !, %, @ etc.
For instance, a valid transaction ID would appear as ‘upi1236547890pfx12689,’ while the unacceptable might be appear as ‘upi@123aCb#7890#a342.’

NPCI stated that enforcement was inevitable as most payment service providers (PSPs) have implemented this directive, except few who continue to use the non-compliant formats. Non-compliance will lead to transaction decline and hence cause inconvenience to users.
Explaining the rationale behind this move, Mohan K, Founder of TechFini, highlighted that enforcing an alphanumeric standard enhances system efficiency, mitigates security risks, and ensures uniformity across UPI transactions.

Alok Singh, Executive Vice President – Digital Business at Ongo, added that while major players have already complied, some PSPs still need to align with NPCI’s mandate of 35-digit alphanumeric transaction IDs.

The directive comes amid record-breaking UPI transaction volumes. According to NPCI data, UPI transactions surged to 16.73 billion in December 2024, an 8% increase from November’s 15.48 billion. The transaction value also saw a significant rise, reaching Rs 23.25 lakh crore in December, compared to Rs 21.55 lakh crore in the previous month. On average, 539.68 million daily transactions were recorded in December, up from 516.07 million in November.

With UPI’s growing adoption, NPCI’s enforcement of standardized transaction IDs is expected to streamline processing, enhance security, and reinforce the robustness of India’s digital payment ecosystem.