TC Web Desk
Digital payments platform Unified Payments Interface (UPI) logged 5.58 billion transactions in April 2022, a new all-time high since its launch in 2016, said National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data. In value terms, UPI saw transactions worth ₹9.83 lakh crore in April, which is a 3.3 per cent jump in volume of transactions from March 2022 and a rise of 111 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
In just five years, it accounted for over 50 percent of retail payments in India. Much of this rise is credited to the pandemic in 2020 that drove a large chunk of new users onto digital platforms amid the nationwide lockdown.
The year, 2021, with the second wave of Covid-19, was way worse than 2020 or any pandemic year earlier, people began switching to digital transactions more than ever before. Today, many Indians have only used online payments for transactions, with QR codes for UPI payments no longer confined to bigger establishments, but used widely in tiny roadside stalls across the country.
In the financial year 2021-22, the UPI breached the $1-trillion mark in transaction values. This is considered as a major milestone for the payments system.
NPCI, the umbrella entity that handles UPI, RuPay, Bharat Bill Pay and others is aiming for UPI transactions worth $1 billion per day in the next two-three years.
NPCI enables UPI on feature phones and in offline mode for smartphones. UPI 123Pay for feature phones is being tested, while NPCI has issued a circular on how UPI Lite will work in offline mode.
