UPI Down For Several Users Across Country

SUMMARY

As per DownDetector, a large number of users flagged the issues with UPI around 11:26 AM

The outage peaked around 12:54 PM, when more than 2,387 users reported issues on the platform

This was the sixth major outage for UPI in the past year

Digital transactions were impacted today due to a widespread Unified Payments Interface (UPI) outage with several users reporting problems in the instant payment interface.

As per DownDetector, a platform that monitors service disruptions based on users’ report, a large number of users flagged the issues with UPI around 11:26 AM.

Further, the outage peaked around 12:54 PM, when more than 2,387 users reported issues on the platform.

While 81% of the complaints were related to payments, 17% complained of funds transfer and a meager 2% issues related to purchases.

As per social media platform X, many users faced difficulties while making payments on third-party platforms like Paytm and Google Pay, among others.

“UPI is down again today, all payments are getting failed. At least there should be prior intimation sent in case of planned outage,” a user said.

However, the service restored functionality as of 3:39 PM, as reports on the downdetector displayed a decline in reports.

Confirming the status on the social media platform X, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said, “NPCI is currently facing intermittent technical issues, leading to partial UPI transaction declines. We are working to resolve the issue, and will keep you updated.”

But, the NPCI is yet to address about resolving the outage.

This was the sixth major outage for UPI in the past year.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed the NPCI to revise transaction limits for person-to-merchant (P2M) payments on the UPI, earlier this week.

To note, UPI transactions in the country reached a record high of 18.30 Bn in March after falling 5% to 16.11 Bn in February. March’s transactions accounted for a total amount of INR 24.77 Lakh Cr, a 12.8% month-on-month (MoM) surge against transactions worth INR 21.96 Lakh Cr in February.

IPO-bound fintech company PhonePe maintained its leadership position in the UPI market in March, processing 864.7 Cr, or 47.25% of the total UPI transactions, followed by Google Pay, which notched up 36.04% of the total UPI transactions, accounting for 34.98% of the total UPI value.

Additionally, the Centre also approved an ‘incentive scheme’ with an outlay of INR 1,500 Cr recently, to promote low-value BHIM-UPI transactions among small merchants.