PremiumNEW DELHI: Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based payments hit another record high, rising 8% sequentially and clocking 1.62 billion transactions in August, as per data released by National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI). In the same month a year ago, 918 million transactions were recorded.
August transactions were worth ₹2.98 trillion, up from ₹2.90 trillion in July and ₹1.54 trillion a year ago. "UPI has been pivotal in pushing the boundaries of digital payment acceptance in India by penetrating the ground level users with safe P2P and P2M fund transfers," NPCI said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Since its launch four years ago, UPI payments have grown consistently barring the April-May period when India went into a complete lockdown. Thereafter, it witnessed a sharp recovery June onwards, with Centre 'unlocking' the economy by easing lockdown curbs.
Over the last two years, UPI transaction, in terms of volume, have exceeded debit card transactions. According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) annual report, the number of transactions via UPI was 1.2 times higher than the number of debit card transactions in 2018-19. Such transactions were 2.5 higher in 2019-20, as per the latest report released the central bank, indicating a shift in consumer preference.
Other forms of digital payments also soared in August. Online utility payments via Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) rose to 21.21 million transactions worth ₹3,782 crore. The BBPS is an interoperable platform that helps a customer pay utility bills such as that of telephone, water, gas, among others, at a single location— electronic or physical. In July, such transactions totalled 20.16 million worth ₹3,707 crore.
Similarly, transactions via electronic toll collection device FASTag also picked up in August, growing 12% sequentially to 96.83 transactions. Value of such transactions was ₹1,712 crore compared with ₹1,623 crore in July, official data showed.
FASTag transactions had declined to 10.26 million in April from 84.55 million in March following the lockdown.
“NETC FASTag has been striving to create a less-cash network of contactless toll collection not only on highways, but also in parking lots like the one in GMR Airport in Hyderabad," NPCI said.
