UPI-Mauritius

Overview

The UPI-Mauritius Linkage is a combined cross-border payments arrangement between India and Mauritius spanning two complementary rails: RuPay card issuance/acceptance and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) QR acceptance [1]. Unlike India's purely outbound tourist-acceptance corridors with Nepal, France, and Qatar, the Mauritius linkage is bidirectional: an Indian traveller can pay a Mauritian merchant using UPI, and a Mauritian traveller can pay in India using Mauritius's Instant Payment System (IPS) app [1]. It also enables Mauritian banks to issue RuPay cards domestically through the MauCAS card scheme, making Mauritius the first country outside Asia to issue cards using RuPay technology [1]. The project was implemented by the Bank of Mauritius and Reserve Bank of India, with support from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) [1]. Mauritius's national report records the UPI cross-border integration over the MauCAS national switch [[../countries/MU-mauritius.md]], and India's report documents UPI and RuPay as NPCI-operated rails [[../countries/IN-india.md]].

History

The RuPay and UPI linkage between Mauritius and India was virtually launched on 12 February 2024, witnessed by Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and (for the parallel Sri Lanka launch) Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, alongside central bank governors [1][2]. The launch was a joint India-Mauritius-Sri Lanka event; UPI and RuPay services for Mauritius and Sri Lanka were inaugurated together [2]. The Bank of Mauritius implemented the project with the support of NPCI [1]. Mauritius's national report dates the UPI cross-border integration to 2024 over its MauCAS infrastructure (operational since 2019) [[../countries/MU-mauritius.md]].

Technical specification

Linkage model — multi-rail. The arrangement combines card interoperability (RuPay) with instant-payment QR acceptance (UPI), giving four interlocking capabilities [1]:

• RuPay cards issued in Mauritius are accepted at ATMs and POS terminals in India [1].
• Indian RuPay cards are accepted at ATMs and POS terminals in Mauritius [1].
• UPI QR: an Indian traveller can pay a Mauritian merchant via UPI by scanning a Mauritius QR [1].
• A Mauritian traveller can pay in India using the Mauritius Instant Payment System (IPS) app [1].

Direction supported — bidirectional. This is the defining contrast with the Nepal, France, and Qatar corridors: Mauritius supports payments in both directions, via UPI for Indian travellers and via the IPS app for Mauritian travellers [1].

RuPay issuance (inbound applies). Through adoption of RuPay technology, the MauCAS card scheme lets Mauritian banks issue RuPay cards domestically — making Mauritius the first country outside Asia to do so [1].

Currency / limits. FX mechanics and per-transaction caps were not specified in the fetched sources [1].

Use cases

• Tourist merchant payments (both ways). Indian visitors pay Mauritian merchants via UPI; Mauritian visitors pay Indian merchants via the IPS app [1].
• Card acceptance abroad. RuPay cardholders from either country can withdraw cash and pay at POS terminals in the other [1].
• Bilateral trade, tourism, and financial-centre positioning. The Bank of Mauritius Governor framed the linkage as enhancing financial connectivity, boosting bilateral trade and tourism, and strengthening Mauritius's role as an international financial centre [1].

Implementations

The Indian side uses standard UPI apps and the RuPay card network; the Mauritian side uses the IPS app and RuPay cards issued by domestic banks via the MauCAS scheme [1][[../countries/MU-mauritius.md]]. The project was delivered by the Bank of Mauritius and Reserve Bank of India with NPCI's support [1]. Mauritius's report notes the UPI cross-border capability integrated with the MauCAS national switch, fully owned by the Bank of Mauritius [[../countries/MU-mauritius.md]].

Comparison

UPI-Mauritius is the most complete of the four India corridors documented here: where Nepal, France, and Qatar are one-way merchant-acceptance corridors (Indian travellers paying foreign merchants, no RuPay issuance), Mauritius is bidirectional and multi-rail, pairing UPI QR acceptance with reciprocal IPS-app payments and domestic RuPay card issuance [1]. In that bidirectionality it is closer in spirit to the upi-paynow account-to-account template than the other three, though the Mauritian reverse leg runs over the IPS app rather than a proxy-addressed remittance rail [1][[../standards/upi-paynow.md]]. Against the multilateral nexus hub, Mauritius remains a standalone bilateral arrangement that does not settle through a shared instant-payment switch [[../countries/MU-mauritius.md]].

Fun facts

• Mauritius is the first country outside Asia to issue cards using RuPay technology [1].
• The Mauritius UPI/RuPay launch was a joint virtual event with Sri Lanka, with two heads of government and a head of state participating [1][2].

Status

Live since 12 February 2024 [1][[../countries/MU-mauritius.md]]. The Bank of Mauritius's release confirms RuPay issuance via MauCAS and bidirectional UPI/IPS acceptance as operational from launch [1]. Specific corridor transaction volumes were not disclosed in the fetched sources [1].

Sources

1 Mauritius and India launch RuPay and Unified Payments Interface Linkage — Bank of Mauritius, 2024 2 PM to witness launch of UPI services in Sri Lanka and Mauritius — Press Information Bureau, Government of India, 2024

Deployments

No country reports mention this standard by name.

Regions / aggregations not mapped to a single country

• India–Mauritius