In a first, transaction volumes on UPI cross 500 cr in March – The Hindu BusinessLine

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Over 17 cr payments worth Rs. 20,000 cr have been made via UPI on daily basis

The widely popular Unified Payments Interface (UPI) crossed the 500 crore mark in terms of volume and was close to touching the Rs. 10-lakh crore milestone in value terms in March this year. UPI processed as many as 540.56 crore payments last month, amounting to Rs. 9,60,581.66crore, data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) revealed.

In contrast, it had processed 452.74 crore transactions worth Rs. 8,26,843crore in February this year. For the full fiscal 2021-22, it crossed the $1-trillion mark at Rs. 84,17,572.48 crore payments. UPI had crossed the 100 crore mark in volume terms in October 2019 and after a dip in April 2020, and has since been gaining widespread adoption. There were as many as 315 banks live on the UPI platform by March this year. On a daily basis, UPI has been processing a high value of transactions. Recent data reveal that over 17 crore payments, worth over Rs. 20,000 crore, have been made via UPI on a daily basis.

“Acceptance at a huge number of merchant locations with easy, rapid, and frictionless payments, including the use of QR codes, is another critical aspect of UPI’s massive size. Customers’ trustbehaviour, on the other side, is the result of the availability of extremely secureUPIarchitecture,” said Manoj Chopra, Head Innovation and Product Development, Kiya.ai.

“To a considerable extent, the pandemic also aided in boosting digital payments usage, includingUPItransactions, and, most critically, the government’s massive push for digital transactions, including demonetisation,” added Chopra.

In 2021-22, it is estimated that 60per centof volumes of retail payments came fromUPI.Features such as AutoPay, Prepaid vouchers, UPI123Pay andUPILite are expected to further aid the adoption of the payments channel, along with usage in countries that include Singapore, Bhutan, UAE and Nepal.

Smaller transactions

NPCI will soon launch UPI Lite for small-value transactions in the offline mode. Other means of digital payments also saw robust growth in March. IMPS processed 49.2 crore transactions valued at Rs. 4,62,278.8 crore last month, against 42.09 crore payments worth Rs. 3,84,404.01-crore payments in February.