UPI Touches Fresh All-Time High In March With 18.30 Bn Transactions

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions jumped 13.6% in March to 18.30 Bn from 16.11 Bn in the preceding month, recording a new all-time high. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the transaction count surged 36% in March.

This surge comes a month after the transaction count fell 5% to 16.11 Bn in February, breaking a streak of all-time high transactions recorded in the previous two consecutive months.

As per data by the National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI), this transaction count of 18.30 Bn accounted for a total amount of INR 24.77 Lakh Cr in March, a 12.8% month-on-month (MoM) surge as recorded against transactions worth INR 21.96 Lakh Cr in the previous month.

The average daily transaction count rose to 590 Mn in the month under review, up from 575 Mn transactions in February. Besides, the average daily transaction amount stood at 79,910 Cr in March.

The Rapid UPI Adoption 

While the transaction count has been fluctuating since the past few months, the homegrown UPI is penetrating deeper into India’s digital payment landscape. Before March, the UPI transactions touched an all time high mark in January with 16.99 Bn transactions. 

Meanwhile, last year turned out to be a boon for UPI in India. In 2024, total UPI transactions surged almost 46% YoY to 17,220 Cr from 11,768 Cr in 2023. The total value of UPI transactions jumped 35% to INR 246.82 Lakh Cr from INR 182.84 Lakh Cr in 2023.

Last year, December ended up being the most crucial month for UPI landscape with 1,673 Cr monthly transactions. 

As per a report by RBI, UPI accounted for more than 85% of the total digital payments recorded in India during 2024. The report claims that out of 20,787 Cr digital payments recorded during the year, 17,221 Cr transactions were routed through UPI. 

While the NPCI is yet to roll out third party player statistics for the month of March, the duopoly was intact with PhonePe and GooglePay till February.

Both the UPI players collectively held more than 85% market share in 2024. 

What’s New For UPI In India?

With the rapid adoption of UPI in the country, the government is making several changes at different levels to streamline the interface and reach a larger chunk of users.

For instance, the Centre recently approved an ‘incentive scheme’ with an outlay of INR 1,500 Cr, aimed at promoting low-value BHIM-UPI transactions among small merchants. Under this scheme, the government will provide incentives for transactions up to INR 2000 recorded in the financial year 2024-25.

Meanwhile, the Payments Council of India (PCI) also wrote to the  Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce MDR (merchant discount rate) on UPI and RuPay transactions for large merchants.

To ensure transparency in the ecosystem, the NPCI also rolled out a new mandate which requires the UPI apps to keep users’ default settings as “checked out” when porting their numbers. With this, the users are allowed to “opt-in” in case they want their number to be ported. This new rule is effective from today (April 1)

Besides, Centre’s efforts for the expansion of UPI cross-border payment is widely known. Last month,  India’s ambassador to Qatar said that UPI is set for a “full rollout” in the Middle Eastern nation “soon”. In 2024, the RBI also partnered with central banks of Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand to link UPI with their fast payment systems to enable cross-border payments.

However, UPI is facing problems in expanding due to Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) compliance requirements for “smaller players”. The Centre recently urged the money laundering watchdog to relax the mandates for cross border payments. 

NPCI has expanded the UPI services to countries including UAE, Nepal, France and Sri Lanka.