Maharashtra, Karnataka top UPI transactions, 4 states report over a billion transactions

Maharashtra, Karnataka top UPI payments

Maharashtra recorded the highest number of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in the country in the first quarter of this fiscal, topping the list every month during the April-June period.

Maharashtra, the country’s economic powerhouse, is followed by Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu, data available on the website of National Payments Corporation of India, which operates UPI, shows.

This is the first time that NPCI has given a state-wise break. The top four states together reported over a billion transactions in May, though the number came down in June.

The country’s most popular real-time payments system enables transactions worth more than Rs 24 lakh crore in a month.

In May, Maharashtra reported Rs 3 lakh crore worth of transactions followed by Karnataka at around Rs 2 lakh crore. Transactions worth Rs 1.8 lakh crore were carried out in Uttar Pradesh and Rs 1.75 lakh crore in Telangana.

The ranking largely follow the states with the big urban centres such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai, where mobile and digital payments are more prevalent even for small-value transactions.

Top states by UPI usage

The data has been collected from UPI apps and where the location data was not received by NPCI, it has been categorised as “unclassified”.

These unclassified transactions formed 45 percent of total business in June, up from 22 percent in May. The state rankings, however, remain unchanged.

Economy and population

The National Capital Region transaction data is split between Delhi, Haryana (Gurugram) and Uttar Pradesh (Noida), and hence does not feature in the top five.

However, Uttar Pradesh, owing to its large population of around 25 crore, is the third largest state with a volume and value market share of over 7 percent in May.

Maharashtra accounted for around 13 percent of UPI transactions followed by Karnataka at around 7.7 percent. Telangana reported 6 percent of all UPI transactions, while Tamil Nadu was at around 4 percent.

UPI is inching closer to surpassing global payments giant Visa’s daily transaction volume, which will make it the largest retail interbank payment settlement platform in the world.

The mobile payment platform facilitates around 650 million transactions a day and reports over 18 billion transactions worth around Rs 25 lakh crore every month.

UPI sees a 5-7 percent month on month growth and a 40 percent annual growth, as internet penetration improves and people embrace digital payments.