UPI transactions grow at a CAGR of 168% in 5 years to Rs139 lakh crore

The value of financial transactions using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has grown from Rs1 lakh crore to Rs139 lakh crore in the last five years, beginning FY 2017-1, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 168 per cent minister of state for finance Bhagwat Karad informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Monday..

This has been accompanied by a decline in the value of bank notes in circulation from 9.9 per cent in FY2021-22 to 7.8 per cent in FY2022-23, 

Similarly, the number of UPI transactions has grown from 920 million in FY2017-18 to 8.38 billion in FY 2022-23, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 147 per cent. 

A bulk of digital transactions in the country came from UPI, which accounted for 62 per cent of overall digital transactions in the 2022-23 financial year. 

The government has been promoting digital transactions through various incentive schemes that, inter alia, include promotion of RuPay debit cards and low-value BHIM UPI transactions (P2M); advisories to various stakeholders to improve payment acceptance infrastructure and allocation and monitoring year-wise digital payment transaction and merchant acquisition targets to the public and private sector banks.

Besides, the government introduced the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan (PMGDISHA) to augment digital literacy in rural India, and other promotion activities conducted with digital payment stakeholders and law enforcement agencies.

In order to encourage customers to adopt to digital banking, RBI has also been conducting electronic banking awareness and training (e-BAAT) programmes across the country with thrust on awareness about digital payment products.

Government also launched a mission called ‘Har Payment Digital’ with the objective of making every person in India aware of digital payments. RBI has also launched ‘75 Digital Villages’ programme to commemorate 75 years of independence besides conducting multimedia channel / platform based public awareness campaigns.

RBI has allowed linking RuPay credit cards to UPI. This would enable financial transactions through UPI QR, without the need to carry credit card.