The island nation Maldives is set to launch India’s RuPay service to bolster the Maldivian Rufiyaa amid soaring ties between the two countries. A senior Maldivian Minister asserted that the Malé government is currently engaged in discussions with New Delhi to explore avenues for facilitating payments in rupees, however, a launch date is yet not decided.
RuPay, introduced by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), is the first of its global card payment network in India, widely accepted at ATMs, POS devices, and e-commerce websites across India.
In recent years, multiple banks and payment companies from across various countries have partnered with NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), the international arm of NPCI, to accept UPI and RuPay in one form or the other. Several nations such as Mauritius, Sri Lanka, France, Malaysia, the UK, Taiwan, Japan, and Nepal, among others, have partnered with NIPL to accept UPI and RuPay in one form or the other.
According to the Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Mohamed Saeed, the RuPay card would be formally utilized for transactions denominated in rupees within the Maldivian territory. Back in 2022, the former Maldivian President, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, during his visit to India, stated that India and Maldives were working to operationalize the usage of Rupay Cards in Maldives.
Maldives on Wednesday stated that India has agreed to cooperate in efforts to pay for imports in the Indian Rupee, instead of the US dollar. Minister Saeed highlighted that he met with the Indian High Commissioner, Munu Mahawar, two weeks ago. Mahawar assured him that New Delhi would support and cooperate in arranging for the settlement of import payments in Indian Rupee, a move that would help Male save almost 50% of the annual $1.5 million import bill.
Notably, in July 2022, the Indian government declared that Maldives was among the 22 countries that were permitted by the Reserve Bank of India to open Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVAs) to promote bilateral trade in local currencies.
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