Google Pay on Tuesday said its users will now be able to make United Payments Interface (UPI) payments with RuPay credit cards as it has launched the feature in partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

With this, Google Pay has joined other major digital payments players like Paytm and PhonePe which allow customers to make UPI payments through linked RuPay credit cards.

Google Pay users can now link their RuPay credit cards Pay to pay at all online and offline merchants where RuPay credit cards are accepted, the company said in a statement.

The feature will be available to RuPay credit card holders of Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, Indian Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Punjab National Bank and Union Bank of India, it added.

Users will need to add the RuPay credit card to Google Pay by tapping on the ‘RuPay credit card on UPI’ option in their profile and selecting the issuing bank to use the new feature. Thereafter, users will need to set a unique UPI PIN by entering the last six digits of the card number and expiry date, and entering the OTP from their bank.

“We believe this service will mature to provide access to digital credit on demand and consumers will be able to make payments by taking benefit of the inherent security and availability of UPI network across both offline and online platforms. We are delighted to partner with Google Pay as we believe that this combination will play a vital role in democratizing credit in India,” Nalin Bansal, chief relationship management and key initiatives, corporate business at NPCI, said.

Last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that it will allow linking credit cards with UPI. “To start with, RuPay credit cards will be enabled with this facility,” the central bank said in June 2022.

In addition, the RBI proposed to ‘expand the scope’ of the UPI by allowing banks to offer pre-sanctioned credit lines to users via UPI.

Digital payments in the country have grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years, thanks to UPI. The move to allow credit cards to be used to make digital payments is an attempt by the central bank to further provide a fillip to this boom.

UPI transaction volume slipped marginally to INR 14.07 Lakh Cr in April 2023 from INR 14.10 Cr in March.

According to NPCI data, PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm secured a 94% market share in the number of UPI transactions processed in March 2023. Google Pay was at the second spot, processing 305.44 Cr UPI transactions worth INR 4.83 Lakh Cr, or 34.75% of all transactions and 33.75% of the transaction value.