The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has achieved a new milestone in the digital payment space. While speaking at the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Digital Payments Awareness Week programme at its headquarters in Mumbai, the central bank’s Governor Shaktikanta Das revealed that the share of UPI in digital payments reached nearly 80% in 2023.
Das mentioned that UPI is also the “biggest contributor to the growth of digital payments in India.” He also noted that nearly 46% of digital transactions in the world take place in India.
“The flagship of our payment systems, the ‘UPI’, has become the most talked about fast payment system not only in India but across the world. It is the biggest contributor to the growth of digital payments in India. The share of UPI in digital payments has reached close to 80 per cent in 2023.We have seen retail digital payments in India growing from 162 crore transactions in FY 2012-13 to over 14,726 crore transactions in 2023-24 (till February 2024) i.e., approximately 90-fold increase over 12 years. Today, India accounts for nearly 46% of the world’s digital transactions (as per 2022 data).”
UPI’s growth in February 2024
According to a report by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI recorded 12 billion transactions for the third straight month in February 2024 which was worth Rs 18.28 trillion.
However, this month the transactions (both volume and amount) were slightly less than January that clocked 12.2 billion transactions worth Rs 18.41 lakh crore. However, UPI transactions grew 61% by volume and 48% by value year-on-year in February.
Another report by PWC India claims that the UPI transactions are expected to cross 100 crore transactions per day and may account for 90% total digital transaction volumes in India over the next five years.
