The UPI-based digital transactions continued to surge and in the month of October, the country saw 16.58 billion transactions worth Rs 23.5 lakh crore, the highest numbers since the UPI became operational in April 2016.
According to data shared by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Friday, October saw a 10 per cent increase in volume and 14 per cent in value compared to September.
Daily UPI transactions in October stood at 535 million in volume and Rs 75,801 crore in value, which is compared to 501 million in volume and Rs 68,800 crore in September.
The number of Instant Payment Service or IMPS transactions were 467 million for October versus 430 million for the previous month. Growth here was at 9 percent. At value terms, amount increased by 11 percent to Rs 6.29 lakh crore as of September 30 from earlier Rs 5.65 lakh crore.
In contrast, FASTag transactions rose 8 per cent to 345 million in October from 318 million in September. Transactions were at Rs 6,115 crore in October as compared to Rs 5,620 crore in September.
Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) saw 126 million transactions in October, 26 per cent more than 100 million in September, NPCI data show.
According to the latest paper by Reserve Bank's Department of Currency Management economist Pradip Bhuyan, digital transactions have increased in India in such a manner that cash usage, though still accounting for 60 per cent of consumer expenditure as of March 2024, is rapidly declining.
Digital payments share more than doubled to 40-48 percent in March 2024 from 14-19 percent in March 2021, with unified payments interface (UPI) contributing the most.
The number of UPI-based transactions jumped 52 per cent to 78.97 billion in the first half of this year (H1 2024), compared with 51.9 billion in the same period last year.
Transactions value, too, went up by 40 percent. This increased from Rs 83.16 lakh crore to Rs 116.63 lakh crore in the first six months of this year.
Read also| India's Core Industries Grow by 2% in September, Driven by Coal and Cement
Read also| Chinese Businesses Face ₹1.25 Lakh Crore Loss This Diwali, Says CAIT
