RBI reports 50% surge in daily UPI transactions to 36 crore

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das announced on Monday that payments made through the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) have grown exponentially in the past year, with daily transactions crossing 36 crore. This marks a 50% increase from 24 crore transactions in February 2022. In terms of value, these transactions are worth Rs 6.27 lakh crore, which is a growth of 17% from Rs 5.36 lakh crore in February 2022. The announcement was made during the launch of the Digital Payments Awareness Week at the RBI headquarters in Mumbai.

Das stated that the overall monthly digital payment transactions crossed over the Rs 1,000-crore-mark each month during the past three months, and that several countries have expressed interest in replicating India’s success story. “Our payment systems are talked about globally, and it is a matter of pride that our payment systems have witnessed over 1,000 crore transactions every month since December 2022. This speaks volumes of the robustness of our payments ecosystem and acceptance by consumers,” he said.

The success of India’s digital payments ecosystem is reflected in a recent pan-India digital payments survey that covered 90,000 respondents. The survey revealed that 42% of respondents have used digital payments. The number of UPI transactions exceeded 800 crore in January 2023, while NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) witnessed the highest ever daily volume of 3.18 crore transactions on February 28.

The UPI was launched in 2016, and since then it has emerged as the most popular and preferred payment mode, accounting for 75% of the total digital payments. The volume of UPI transactions has increased manifold from 0.45 crore in January 2017 to 804 crore in January 2023. The value of UPI transactions has increased from just Rs 1,700 crore to Rs 12.98 lakh crore during the same period.

The RBI has also undertaken a tokenisation exercise, creating over 48 crore card tokens that have processed over 86 crore transactions, making it the world’s biggest tokenisation exercise. Tokenised transactions have increased from 35% initially to 62% of the ecosystem.

The recurring mandate framework has helped increase the number of e-mandates, which were around 2-3 crore earlier or worth Rs 130 crore, to around 15 crore or worth Rs 1,700 crore now. Acceptance of digital payments infrastructure has increased from 17 crore touch points to 26 crore touch points, an increase of 53%.

Governor Das launched the ‘Har payment digital’ mission, which seeks to reinforce the RBI’s commitment to deepen digital payments in the country. While the UPI has facilitated digital payments to retail outlets, kiranas, street vendors, etc., the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) has ensured migration of bill payments from cash/cheques to digital mode, and the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) system has helped in migration of the toll payments to digital mode with enhancing efficiency in terms of reduced waiting time at toll plazas, the governor said.

The National Automated Clearing House (NACH) system has also facilitated the direct benefit transfers (DBT) payments digitally, eliminating leakages in the system. Governor Das further stated that the RBI has decided to adopt 75 villages by involving village-level entrepreneurs as part of the 75 digital villages programme. Under this programme, payment system operators (PSOs) will adopt 75 villages and convert them into digital payment-enabled villages.

Addressing the same event, which also marks the 18th year of the Department of Payments Settlement Systems at the RBI, deputy governor Rabi Sankar who heads the department, said over the past five years the digital payments have grown 15 per cent annually. Financial formalisation of the economy is a must as money is at the core of any economy, Sankar said, adding the digital vision 2025 of the RBI (when the department turns 20 years) is to ensure digital payments by everyone, everywhere and every time.