De-dollarization is becoming more and more prelevant as the partnership between one of India's most popular payment providers and a Lankan firm would secure $1.1 billion in earnings for Sri Lanka, estimates published by the island nation's tourism body suggested.
Earlier this week, India's PhonePe and Sri Lanka's LankaPay announced their collaboration.
"We are thrilled to announce our partnership with LankaPay. This collaboration offers unparalleled convenience to Indian tourists who can now use a familiar and secure payment method while traveling and pay across LankaQR merchant points," Ritesh Pai, the CEO of PhonePe International Payments said in a statement.
With the move, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India's homegrown payments network, can be operated in Sri Lanka, allowing Indian visitors to make payments in INR.
The development comes days ahead of school summer vacations in India, which is expected to give a major boost to Sri Lanka's tourism-dependent economy as Indian visitors will no longer have to worry about the conversion of currencies while making payments there.
It is worth noting that 600,000 Indian travelers are expected to visit Sri Lanka in 2024.