Residents of India will soon be able to make mobile payments for goods and services when visiting Nepal from their smartphone’s digital wallet using an interoperable cross-border payments system to be implemented between the two countries.

The Indian and Nepalese governments have drawn up an agreement to launch the service that will let visitors to Nepal use Indian digital wallets such as BharatPe, Google Pay, Paytm and PhonePe to make in-store purchases, P2P transactions and other payments, according to local media reports.

The service will use a unified payments interface being developed in Nepal by the National Payments Corporation of India in collaboration with Gateway Payment Service and Manam Infotech, Indian newspaper Business Standard reports.

“Tourism entrepreneurs say that the launch of digital payment services will eliminate the hassle of carrying large amounts of cash for Indian tourists and businessmen in Nepal,” according to Business Standard.

“The system will enable payments for larger digital goods and boost interoperable real-time person-to-person (P2P) and merchant payment transactions (P2M) in Nepal.

“The system is currently not on a reciprocal basis, and Nepalis are not allowed to make payments through Bharat-QR while travelling to India.”

“The deal is expected to be signed during Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s visit to India sometime this month,” the newspaper adds.

Singapore and Malaysia launched a cross-border QR code payments system earlier this month.

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