UPI growth journey continues, IMPS and FASTag cross pre-COVID volumes: NPCI data

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) juggernaut continues to roll even when, overall, the country is reeling from an economic crisis induced by COVID-19.

According to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data, UPI has clocked 1.8 billion transactions in September, up 12.5 percent from August when it recorded 1.6 billion transactions.

In terms of the amount of funds settled, almost Rs 3.3 lakh crore was transferred through the channels in September, compared to Rs 2.9 lakh crore in August.

Interestingly, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), an interbank fund transfer mechanism run by NPCI, has reported almost 280 million transactions in September, crossing the last highest transaction volume of 260 million recorded in January this year.

While the UPI has had a rapid recovery after the lockdown shock in April, IMPS has taken much longer to recover to the pre-COVID numbers.

Industry insiders have pointed out that September has been a much better month in terms of business compared to the last few months, as more people have started venturing out of their homes and consumption is slowly getting back to near-normal levels.

FASTag, which gives a count of commercial and private vehicles moving across the country and an indicator of economic activity, has also seen a gradual rise.

In September, the toll payment volume jumped to 110 million, matching the pre-COVID numbers of February. In total, Rs 1,940 crore was settled through this channel, which is higher than the February volumes as well.

While other digital modes have been gaining in volume, the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) has been showing a steady decline over the last few months.

AePS transactions jumped during lockdown months, since the rural poor was using the biometric-enabled terminals to cash out the DBT payments they were receiving from the government.

Since the direct cash transfers stopped, AePS transaction volumes have also started correcting the numbers.

In September, 298 million approved transactions were recorded, compared to more than 400 million in April and May. In September, a total of Rs 17,351 crore have been settled through the system, data from NPCI shows.