Nepal UK
Indian tourists can scan a QR code to pay a shopkeeper in Kathmandu. A Nepali visitor in Delhi cannot do the same. More than three years after Nepal and India agreed to link their digital payment systems, that imbalance remains, and the question now is whether Prime Minister Balendra Shah's expected visit to India will fix it. The most recent reporting, published on Saturday 14 November, says neither the central bank nor NCHL has been asked for recommendations on the issue ahead of the trip.
On 1 June 2023, during the visit to India of then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, India's National Payments Corporation of India and Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) agreed to connect their payment systems. The rollout has come in stages. Indian visitors have been able to pay by QR code in Nepal since early 2024, through Nepal's Fonepay and Khalti wallets. The same facility has never opened for Nepali travellers in India.
Progress came on remittances. After Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal's visit to India, reported in early June this year, the two sides agreed to put person-to-person transfers into operation, and the UPI–NPI linkage was announced on 9 June. According to the latest reporting, Nepali and Indian users in India can send up to INR 200,000 per transaction to Nepali bank accounts. Indian citizens in Nepal can send up to INR 15,000 per transaction and INR 100,000 a month to India. Merchant QR payments, and transfers from Nepali individuals to India, are still being introduced.
A Nepal Rastra Bank spokesperson, Guru Prasad Poudel, said the infrastructure side is ready and talks with the relevant authorities are under way. NCHL's chief executive, Nilesh Man Singh Pradhan, said the Indian side has given no clear explanation, and claimed that India has not yet enabled citizens of any foreign country to scan local QR codes to pay directly. That is his account; NepalUK has not seen a public response from the Indian side on timing. Pradhan added that NCHL is working on linking Nepali dollar cards to Alipay+ and UnionPay QR codes, which would extend a different route to payments abroad.
Prime Minister Shah's visit has no officially announced date. The latest report puts it in the second week of the Nepali month of Mangsir, which begins in mid-November. NepalUK has not confirmed the corresponding Gregorian dates. Earlier reports pointed to the third week of November and the first week of Mangsir. A report in mid-October said the proposed three-day trip would cover infrastructure, hydropower, trade and border questions, with several agreements under consideration.
Neither the central bank nor NCHL has been asked for recommendations on cross-border payments ahead of the trip, and Pradhan said he did not know whether the issue would be raised. Earlier reporting indicated that India's payments body prefers to announce cross-border steps during prime-ministerial visits. NepalUK's reading is that a visit could therefore be a natural moment for a QR announcement, but nothing in the preparations described so far suggests it is on the agenda.
Nepali travellers in India can use cards issued by Nepali banks and withdraw up to INR 15,000 a day from Indian ATMs, subject to a monthly limit of INR 100,000. Card payments for hospital bills, pharmacy purchases and hotel stays of up to NPR 1 million need no prior approval. Visitors may also carry Indian notes below INR 500 up to a value of NPR 25,000.
For families with relatives on either side of the border, the practical gain from a QR link would be everyday spending without cash or cards. The risk is expectation: an announcement without a start date would leave the practical problem unsolved. In NepalUK's view, a government that wants a visible result from the trip would do well to settle the technical timetable before the delegation leaves.
