UPI Maintains Its Growth With Nearly 1.5 Bn Transactions In July

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has continued to maintain its fast-paced growth with 1.49 Bn transactions worth INR 2,90,537 Cr in July 2020. Last month, UPI had recorded 1.34 Bn transactions worth INR 2,61,835 Cr, according to the data shared by National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI). In May UPI had over 1.23 Bn transactions worth INR 2.18 Lakh Cr.

While UPI is back to the top, here are some other transaction details shared by NPCI include:

• NETC FASTag registered 86.62 Mn transactions worth INR 1,623 Cr in June 2020, compared to 81.92 Mn transactions worth INR 1,511 Cr in May 2020.
• IMPS recorded 222.10 Mn transactions worth INR 2.24 Lakh Cr in July 2020, as against 198.68 Mn transactions worth INR  2.06 Lakh Cr in June 2020.

Though UPI is the most popular form of digital payments at the moment, it could not be saved from the negative impact of Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown. In February, UPI had hit 1.33 Mn transactions amounting to INR 2.22 Lakh Cr, but it fell to 1.25 Bn worth INR 2.06 Lakh Cr in March 2020.

UPI transactions had further tanked to below the billion mark in April 2020 with 990 Mn transactions worth INR 1.51 Lakh Cr. This fall in UPI transactions was attributed to the restrictions on tour, travel, non-essential segments, and more. In March, an industry executive was quoted by Economic Times saying, “With industries across the board seeing a sharp slowdown, the digital payments sector is estimated to have registered a decline of around 30% in transaction value over the past few weeks.

Looking at UPI’s popularity, NPCI has got a little cautious about the negative impact it would create on the payment ecosystem in case the system was to collapse. Therefore, it is looking to cap transactions for digital payments players like Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm and others. NPCI is expected to give payments apps three months to comply with the rules, starting July.

NPCI has asked apps to limit their payments if they exceed 50% of all UPI transactions in the first year of the implementation of the rules, 40% in the second year and 33% from third year onwards. The body had reportedly taken the decision earlier in July, and will be applicable from April 1, 2021. It has been working on these capping guidelines since last August.

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