The Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) is urging Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore to use the newly launched PayNow-UPI linkage for business dealings with India, for easier payments. The cross-border real-time digital payment system was launched on Tuesday in the presence of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.

SICCI Chairman Neil Parekh has said that the SMEs stand to gain from the PayNow-UPI linkage and it is timely as both countries have resumed normalcy with a high influx of Indian entrepreneurs coming to Singapore for business delegation meetings with their counterparts.

According to Singapore’s Prime Minister’s Office, the PayNow-UPI linkage offers cheaper, faster, and safer cross-border retail payments and remittances directly between bank accounts or e-wallets for businesses and individuals alike.

The world’s first real-time payment systems linkage to use a scalable cloud-based infrastructure which can accommodate future increases in the volume of remittance traffic, the PayNow-UPI linkage is a collaboration between the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The service is currently available to Singapore customers of DBS Bank and Liquid Group in a phased approach, where these institutions will progressively increase the number of eligible user groups and transaction limits from Tuesday till the end of March 2023. Indian customers of all participating Indian banks will be able to receive funds through the service from the onset, according to a MAS release.

Parekh has congratulated Ravi Menon, Managing Director of MAS, and Shaktikanta Das, Governor of the RBI, for finalizing the details and launching the scheme during India’s Chairmanship of the G20.

In a fireside chat organized by SICCI, Das had addressed its members in Singapore in July last year.

Apart from benefiting businesses, the PayNow-UPI linkage will also help the Indian diaspora in Singapore, especially migrant workers and students, through the instantaneous and low-cost transfer of money from Singapore to India and vice-versa. The linkage is expected to ease the process of remittance and reduce the cost and time taken to move money between the two countries.

In conclusion, the PayNow-UPI linkage is a welcome development that will benefit the SMEs in Singapore and the Indian diaspora living there. The cross-border real-time digital payment system will make transactions between the two countries quicker, easier, and more cost-effective.