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UPI transactions cross 300 million in August
Around 312.02 million transactions amounting to ₹54,212.26 crore were carried out during the month, according to NPCI data
New Delhi: Monthly transactions through the unified payments interface (UPI) crossed the 300 million mark for the first time in August, data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Saturday showed.
Under the UPI, 312.02 million transactions amounting to ₹ 54,212.26 crore were carried out during the month, a 14% increase in transaction volume, compared with 273.75 million transactions worth ₹ 51,843.14crore in July.
The data does not include transactions with debit/credit in the same account for the month of August, NPCI said on its website.
In a move aimed at curbing fake transactions and regulate fintech companies from inflating their UPI numbers, the NPCI had asked banks to stop transactions from August 1 that originate from different UPI applications with the debit and the credit happening in the same account.
Earlier this month, the upgraded version of UPI, UPI 2.0, was launched, with several new features, including an overdraft facility enabling customers to link their overdraft accounts to the UPI. Also, a one-time mandate feature that allows customers to pre-authorise a transaction and pay at a later date, and the invoice-in-the-box feature that allows customers to check the invoice sent by merchants prior to making a payment. The signed intent and QR feature enables customers to check the authenticity of merchants while scanning the QR codes.
“ #DigitalIndia making deep inroads into consumer behaviour. BHIM UPI txns, show increasing user adaption Month on Month. Aug’18 Txn count/value up by 32.7% & 18% over July ‘18. Building a less cash & Financially inclusive economy #NewIndia @PMOIndia @FinMinIndia,” tweeted Rajeev Kumar, secretary, Department of Financial Services, on Saturday.
Of the total UPI transactions in August, 16.5 million amounting to ₹ 6,872.57 crore took place through the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) platform.
UPI is a payments system launched by the NPCI, the umbrella organisation for all retail payments in the country, which facilitates instant fund transfer between two bank accounts on a mobile platform, without requiring any detail of the beneficiary’s bank account. Till now, there have been more than 30.88 million downloads of the BHIM app on the Android platform and around 1.54 million on the iOS platform.
Transactions through the UPI received a major stimulus after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the BHIM app on 30 December 2016. In the last one year, the monthly UPI transaction volume has gone up by around 2,000%, according to NPCI data.
UPI was launched in August 2016 with 21 banks. It is now offered by around 114 banks.
“With doubling of the payment limit to ₹ 2 lakh in UPI 2.0, large merchants cannot afford to ignore the cases that UPI opens up for them. The adoption rate will further increase in the coming months,” according to Harshil Mathur, CEO and co-founder, RazorPay.
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First Published:1 Sep 2018, 06:24 PM IST
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