UPI Transactions Dip Slightly in April 2024
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) saw a slight dip in transactions in April 2024, with a 1% month-on-month (MoM) decrease to 13.30 billion from 13.44 billion in March. The value of transactions also declined, reaching Rs 19.64 lakh crore compared to Rs 19.78 lakh crore in March.
Despite this slight dip, UPI transactions have shown impressive growth in the fiscal year 2023-24. Compared to the previous year, UPI transactions increased by 57% in volume and 44% in value. In March 2024 alone, the volume of transactions surged by 55% to 13.44 billion, while the value increased by 40% to Rs 19.78 lakh crore compared to March 2023. Notably, this marked the first time that UPI transactions surpassed 100 billion, reaching 131 billion in a single financial year, compared to 84 billion in 2022-23.
IMPS and FASTag Transactions Decline in April 2024
IMPS transactions also witnessed a decline in both value and volume in April compared to March. The value of transactions decreased by 7% to Rs 5.92 trillion from Rs 6.35 lakh crore in March, and Rs 5.68 lakh crore in February. In terms of volume, transactions decreased by 5% from 581 million in March to 550 million in April, compared to 535 million in February. However, the year-on-year comparison showed a positive trend with an increase of 11% in volume and 14% in value.
FASTag transactions also decreased in April, with a 3% decline in volume and a 6% decline in value. The value of transactions decreased to Rs 5,592 crore in April from Rs 5,939 crore in March. Transaction value stood at Rs 5,582 crore in February and Rs 5,560 crore in January. FASTag volume in April decreased to 328 million compared to 339 million in March. There were 323 million transactions in February and 331 million in January. Despite the decline, FASTag grew 8% in volume and 9% in value compared to April 2023.
NPCI's Efforts to Increase UPI Adoption
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has implemented various strategies to increase the utilisation of UPI. These include introducing new features and services such as UPI Lite, credit lines on UPI, UPI LITE X, Tap & Pay, Hello! UPI, and BillPay Connect.
NPCI was established in 2008 to operate retail payments and settlement systems in India. It has created a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in the country, revolutionizing the way payments are made in India. NPCI offers a range of retail payment products such as RuPay card, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC), and Bharat BillPay.