Post demonetisation Paytm hitting more than five million transactions in one week

Paytm claims to have added 1.5 lakh merchants to its network of 10 lakh merchant network across India that accepts digital wallet payments

Witnessing an exponential growth in terms of day-to-day transactions after demonetisation, Paytm is touching more than five million transactions in one week as compared to the combined average daily number of payment transactions seen by debit and credit cards in India.

Lauding the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative, Paytm vice-president Sudhanshu Gupta said the move is unprecedented which would bring a massive forward-looking change for the economy as money will circulate and there will be less of terrorism and corruption.

"Digital money goes far. It has a lot of benefits for people because you actually earn interest on your money; you are also able to get financial services like loans if you have digital money and if you have records. All in all, it's been a great move, and it's obviously meant some hectic times for us because people have started looking for alternatives because of the scarcity of cash," Gupta said.

He further said people have started moving to mobile wallets.

"It's good because mobile is more penetrated, it's more easily accessible. So for us, we have seen peaks of close to seven million transactions as well. It's been really good for us." he added.

One97 Communications Ltd-owned Paytm claims to have added 1,50,000 merchants to its network of 10 lakh merchant network across India that accepts digital wallet payments.

The company has served over 45 million users and signed up over five million new users. Overall, the company has seen 25 million offline transactions on Paytm in the last few days, amounting to Rs.150 crore.

Chief marketing officer, Shankar Nath told ANI, "It's an extremely bold initiative and it's a once in a lifetime initiative that's been rolled out by the government, and, I think, it's upon all of us here for Paytm and even outside to try and make this move a complete success. There may be initial short-term issues,"

"Every Indian who today needs to do transactions and is a little short of cash. We have gone communicating as much as possible with our entire user base of consumers and at the same time the very important element in this chain that's the entire retail network," he said.

Prime Minster Narendra Modi on Sunday had appealed to the people to embrace digital banking to tide over the currency crunch.

In a renewed push for making India a cashless economy, Prime Minister Modi in his Mann Ki Baat programme said, "Scrapping these notes has opened other avenues to make payments. Download apps of banks and e-payment options. Shopkeepers can keep card swiping facilities and everyone can ensure they pay safe using their credit and debit cards."

He asked traders and small shop owners to provide alternative payment methods such as using POS machines, e-payment wallets and other such "friendly technologies" to their patrons.

The Prime Minister said that by adopting such technology, even small traders can immensely increase their profits.

"I invite you to make India a cashless society. Mobile phone and the whole banking system can pose many alternatives to currency notes. Technological paths are safe's, secure and accelerated. I would like you to just help this campaign successful," he said.

Acknowledging that the demonetisation has caused great hardships to wage workers, Prime Minister Modi asked them to open their bank accounts so that they can also avail digital banking facilities.

Prime Minister Modi said that it is his dream to have a cashless society. He opined that the people would be trouble free if they are made aware of all digital financial transaction options.