Sri Lanka and India To Fast-Track UPI Rollout

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka and India are accelerating plans for an early roll-out of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system in Sri Lanka, a move anticipated to significantly enhance bilateral economic cooperation.

This emerged during a meeting yesterday between Sri Lankan State Finance Minister Shehan Semasinghe and Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Santosh Jha.

The high-level discussions, held in Colombo, highlighted India's unwavering support for Sri Lanka's ongoing debt restructuring process and its broader economic recovery efforts. 

Both sides had discussed to expedite the implementation of UPI in Sri Lanka. This digital payment system, revolutionizing India's financial landscape, is poised to offer enhanced convenience and security for transactions between the two countries.

Discussions included exploring avenues for increased use of the Indian rupee (INR) in bilateral trade, potentially reducing currency conversion costs and streamlining financial transactions.

Finance Minister Semasinghe described the meeting as "fruitful," stressing the importance of "collaborative initiatives to enhance economic ties and progress on the debt restructuring process." 

The Indian High Commission echoed this sentiment, stating via X (Twitter) that they discussed "early launch of UPI, promoting INR trade settlement & investments-led economic partnership."