Payments through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) accounted for more than half of all digital transactions in India in FY22 (2021-22), suggesting rapid adoption of the technology that was launched just six years back.
In FY22, UPI accounted for 52 percent of the total 8,840 crore financial digital transactions with a total value of Rs 126 lakh crore, the government noted in its pre-Budget Economic Survey. In FY19 (2018-19), UPI accounted only for about 17 percent of the country's total 3,100 crore digital transactions, the Economic Survey noted.
On average, between FY19-22 (calendar year), UPI transactions grew 121 percent in terms of value and 115 percent in terms of volume, the survey noted. In December 2022, UPI touched its highest-ever mark with 782 crore transactions worth Rs 12.8 lakh crore, according to the Economic Survey.
The Economic Survey further noted that UPI has processed 2,922
crore contactless merchants’ transactions with a total value of over Rs 21.7 lakh crore in the first nine months of FY23 (2022-23).
According to the survey, India took the lead with the fintech adoption rate of 87 percent, higher than the world average of 64 percent as per the latest Global FinTech Adoption, a report by EY. According to the EY report, the figures show fintech adopters as a percentage of the digitally active population.
Launched in 2016, UPI consolidates multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application by merging several features like fund routing and merchant payments along with peer-to-peer payments. According to the Economic Survey, more than 380 banks became a part of UPI as of December 2022, from just 35 in December 2017.
The government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have also been taking active steps to broaden the scope of the technology. Earlier this month, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said that non-resident Indians (NRIs) from at least ten countries will soon be allowed to make payments using UPI without an Indian mobile number.
In December, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that UPI will offer single-block-and-multiple-debits functionality, which according to him would enhance the ease of making payments for investments in securities including through the Retail Direct platform as well as e-commerce transactions.
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