RBI Retail Direct Scheme: Transaction limit through UPI payments increased from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh

New Delhi: RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday announced to enhance the transaction limit for payments through UPI for the Retail Direct Scheme from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

Das announced to "enhance the transaction limit for payments through UPI for the Retail Direct Scheme for investment in G-secs and Initial Public Offering (IPO) applications from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched two innovative customer centric initiatives of the Reserve Bank of India --RBI Retail Direct Scheme and the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme --last month.

What is RBI Retail Direct Scheme 

The RBI Retail Direct Scheme is aimed at enhancing access to government securities market for retail investors. It offers them a new avenue for directly investing in securities issued by the Government of India and the State Governments. Investors will be able to easily open and maintain their government securities account online with the RBI, free of cost.

As part of continuing efforts to increase retail participation in government securities, ‘the RBI Retail Direct’ facility was announced in the Statement of Developmental and Regulatory Policies dated February 05, 2021 for improving ease of access by retail investors through online access to the government securities market – both primary and secondary - along with the facility to open their gilt securities account (‘Retail Direct’) with the RBI.

In pursuance of this announcement, the ‘RBI Retail Direct’ scheme, which is a one-stop solution to facilitate investment in Government Securities by individual investors is being issued today. The highlights of the ‘RBI Retail Direct’ scheme are:

i. Retail investors (individuals) will have the facility to open and maintain the ‘Retail Direct Gilt Account’ (RDG Account) with RBI.

ii. RDG Account can be opened through an ‘Online portal’ provided for the purpose of the scheme.

iii. The ‘Online portal’ will also give the registered users the following facilities:

Access to primary issuance of Government securities

Access to NDS-OM.