India, Feb. 1 -- The Centre has allocated INR 2,000 Cr under the incentive scheme for promotion of RuPay debit cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions of up to INR 2,000 for 2026-27.

According to the Union Budget 2026-27 documents, this number is near 5X higher than INR 437 Cr budgeted for FY26. However, it is lower than the INR 2,196 Cr revised estimate for FY26.

Under the scheme, which was introduced in Union Budget 2021-22, the government reimburses banks for the cost of processing RuPay debit card and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions so that customers and small merchants can use these digital payments at zero or very-low cost.

These incentives are typically provided at the rate of 0.15% per transaction value for transactions up to...