How to Use UPI in Mauritius and Sri Lanka

NPCI International Payments Limited, the arm of NPCI responsible for taking UPI beyond India, signed arrangements enabling UPI acceptance at merchants in both Mauritius and Sri Lanka. This followed a broader pattern of NPCI International building bilateral links with individual countries rather than a single global rollout, which is why UPI's international footprint still looks like a growing list of specific countries rather than blanket worldwide coverage.

1. Confirm your specific UPI app supports international payments, since this is not enabled by default on every app.

2. Activate any explicit international or travel payments toggle your app requires, which some PSPs specifically ask you to turn on before departure.

3. Understand that a currency conversion applies, converting the local currency amount into your Indian bank account's currency at the time of payment, often with a forex markup.

4. Carry a backup payment method, since merchant acceptance, while growing, is still far from universal across either country.

Additional Read: The Future of UPI: Faster, Safer, and Everywhere

In both countries, acceptance tends to be concentrated around tourist-heavy areas, larger retail chains, and merchants who specifically cater to Indian visitors, given the strong travel and diaspora ties both nations have with India. Smaller, independent local vendors are less likely to have adopted UPI acceptance yet, so it is worth treating it as a convenient option rather than a guaranteed one at every stop.

This international linkage does not change how UPI behaves for a purely domestic transaction back home, like settling a credit card bill payment, which continues to run entirely within India's own payment rails regardless of any international UPI features you have activated.

Before traveling, check your UPI app's settings for an international payments option and enable it, confirm with your bank that your account allows international UPI transactions, note down your bank's customer care number in case anything needs troubleshooting while abroad, and keep some local currency or a backup card on hand for the merchants who have not yet adopted UPI.

Even partial coverage removes real friction: no need to carry large amounts of foreign cash purely for contingency, and a payment experience that feels identical to home for merchants who do accept it. As NPCI International continues expanding these bilateral arrangements, coverage in both countries is likely to keep growing rather than staying fixed at today's level.

Both countries have unusually deep historical, cultural, and diaspora ties with India, along with consistently high volumes of Indian tourists and business travelers, which made them natural early candidates for NPCI International's bilateral outreach compared to markets with less existing travel traffic. This pattern, prioritizing countries with strong existing travel and remittance corridors, is a useful signal for predicting which destinations are likely to gain UPI acceptance next as the international rollout continues.

Mauritius and Sri Lanka are part of a wider pattern of NPCI International signing similar arrangements with other destinations popular among Indian travelers, including parts of the Gulf, Southeast Asia, and Europe, each negotiated and rolled out on its own separate timeline rather than as one simultaneous global launch. For a frequent international traveler, this means it is worth checking, before every trip rather than assuming based on a previous visit, whether UPI acceptance has since expanded, been added, or remains limited at the specific destination, since the map of supported countries continues to change from one year to the next.

Since completing a UPI payment requires an active data or roaming connection at the moment of the transaction, it is worth arranging an international roaming pack or a local SIM with data before relying heavily on UPI during the trip, rather than assuming hotel or cafe Wi-Fi will always be available exactly when a payment needs to go through at a counter.

For everyday domestic payments, Stashfin's UPI service lets you scan and pay to any mobile number or UPI ID, or move money to your own bank account, directly through bank-to-bank UPI rails within India, which remains the most reliable way to use UPI day to day between trips.

• NPCI International has enabled UPI acceptance at merchants in both Mauritius and Sri Lanka.

• Not every UPI app has international payments enabled by default; check and activate this before traveling.

• Payments abroad convert to your account's currency and may carry a forex markup.

• Acceptance is strongest around tourist areas and larger retail chains, so carrying a backup payment method is still sensible.

• Domestic UPI transactions, including bill payments, remain unaffected by any international UPI features you enable.