The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system saw its highest volume of transactions in April at 5.58 billion transactions worth ₹9.83 trillion. This represents a monthly growth of 3.33% and 2.36% in terms of volume and value of transactions, and an yearly growth of 111% in volume and 100% in value, as per data by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). In April 2021, the total volume and value of transactions were 2.64 billion, and ₹4.93 billion.
Over the past two years, UPI has seen a 350% rise in usage since the pandemic began, and is becoming a preferred payment option for both peer-to-peer and peer-to-merchant transactions.
In FY 22, it had processed over 46 billion transactions worth ₹84.17 trillion, and in FY 21, there were 22.28 billion transactions totalling more than ₹41.03 trillion.
The need for contactless payments during the pandemic, and the rise of a variety of app-based ‘gig jobs’ has also encouraged UPI, along with the sucking out of cash from the economy during ‘demonetization’ of 2016.
UPI has been exponentially growing its usage and transaction value. It took three years for it to cross 1 billion transactions from 2016 to 2019, and then only 1 year to reach 2 billion, fuelled by the COVID pandemic and lockdowns. In October 2020 it had processed 2 billion transactions. Then it hit the 3 billion mark in 10 months, and 4 billion in three months.
UPI is taking initiatives to increase its footprint by targeting smaller transactions. The NPCI is slated to introduce the “UPI Lite” ‘on device’ wallet feature for small transactions, and has launched the ‘UPI123Pay’ for 400 million feature phone users in association with the RBI.
Latest Videos