The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded a record 6.57 billion (657 crore) transactions worth Rs 10.72 lakh crore in August, data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) showed on Thursday. The growth in UPI volume is almost 100 percent (Y-o-Y) and the transaction volume has increased by 75 percent in the month of August.
“With the acceptance of card payments through UPI, the transaction volume is set to grow strongly and the average cost per transaction will also increase. Through this growth, NPCI systems have become robust and have the best uptime in the payments industry. NPCI is on track to achieve its vision of 1 billion transactions per day,” said Rajesh Mirjankar MD & CEO, Kiya.ai.
The country crossed 6 billion transactions for the first time last month, with 6.28 billion transactions worth Rs 10.62 lakh crore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month lauded the achievement of UPI transactions crossing 6 billion in July – the highest since its launch six years ago.
In a tweet, Modi said, “This is an outstanding achievement. It indicates the collective resolve of the people of India to adopt new technologies and make the economy clean. Digital payments were especially helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic.” “
In FY22, UPI processed over 46 billion transactions amounting to over Rs 84.17 trillion, thus crossing the $1 trillion mark. UPI aims to process one billion transactions a day in the next five years. The UPI facility was launched on 11 April 2016 by the then Governor of Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan. Recently, NPCI has mandated that all UPI-based applications obtain prior authorization of the consumers before recording their location.
Whenever a customer gives permission to record his location, the permission should be properly communicated to UPI, otherwise the company will take strict action. By December 1, all members must comply with this rule and applies to domestic UPI transactions between individuals.
“UPI continues to penetrate more into the payments ecosystem, as reflected by a nearly 5 per cent (month-on-month) increase in the number of UPI transactions and a nearly one per cent (month-on-month) increase in the value of such transactions. Mass adoption of UPI is driving financial inclusion with respect to payments in India,” said Swapnil Bhaskar, Head of Strategy, Neo, a Neobank for the Millennium.
Read also | PM Modi lauds UPI transactions that crossed record 6 billion in July
Read also | UPI will be free, government will not charge any fee for services: Finance Ministry