UPI transactions for FY25 fall short of govt's 200-bn target, record 185 bn transactions

Representative Image

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions for the financial year ending March 31, 2025, have fallen short of the government target by around 7.5 percent despite growing at over 41 percent last financial year.

The government had set a target of 20,000 crore or 200 billion transactions for the last fiscal, while the country’s largest digital payments platform recorded 18,500 crore or 185 billion transactions in the previous fiscal, according to the data available with the National Payments Corporation of India.

UPI has recorded a growth of over 41 percent year-on-year, with the platform recording 131 billion transactions during the financial year ending March 31, 2024, a substantial rate of growth considering the high base.

While announcing the last fiscal’s UPI subsidy of Rs 1,500 crore, the government said that the aim of the programme is to promote the UPI platform to achieve 200 billion transactions.

“Promotion of indigenous UPI platform. Achieving the target of 20,000 crore total transaction volume in FY 2024-25,” the statement on the PM India website said.

The value of transactions also grew to Rs 260 lakh crore during the financial year, compared to Rs 200 lakh crore in the previous financial year, representing a 30 percent growth.

The number of UPI transactions reached a new high of 18.3 billion in the month of March, with the value touching a new high of Rs 24.77 lakh crore last month, recording a growth of 12.7 percent over the preceding month.

March has proven to be a landmark month for UPI, with daily values of transactions crossing Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time. On March 1, UPI clocked Rs 1,01,628 crore worth of transactions.

For the full calendar year 2024, UPI recorded over 172 billion transactions, a 45 percent growth compared to the previous year.

The platform recorded around 117 billion transactions during 2023, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India, which runs UPI.

The value of transactions saw a 34 percent growth to Rs 246 lakh crore in 2024, compared to Rs 183 lakh crore, the platform recorded in 2023.

UPI is the country’s most popular real-time payments platform, facilitating almost 85 percent of all digital payments.

In 2024 alone, 20 companies received third-party application provider (TPAP) approval from NPCI, which is required to provide customers with UPI services. According to the NPCI website, 40 firms have received TPAP approval since 2016.