UPI volume dips 2% to 782 mn in April, value of transactions up 6%: NPCI

The volume of transactions through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) — the government’s flagship payments platform — dipped marginally by 2 per cent on a monthly basis in April. However, the value of such transactions rose 6 per cent, shows data by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

The volume was 782 million in April, against nearly 800 million in March. At the same time, the value stood at Rs 1.42 trillion in April, against Rs 1.33 trillion in March.

For the government’s UPI app — Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) — the volume of transactions was at 15.5 million and value at Rs 6,583 crore in April. BHIM has seen a declining trend in UPI transactions, especially since January, amid competition from private players. However, in April, there was a rise in both volume and value of transactions through the app.

Local players such as Paytm and PhonePe have been competing for market share in the digital payments space, facing stiff competition from global giants Google and WhatsApp. Amazon Pay is the latest entrant in the peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions space through UPI.
 

While UPI transactions have mostly comprised P2P ones till date, both the NPCI and other players have undertaken measures to promote merchant transactions. Experts believe a rise in merchant transactions will exponentially raise the value of the UPI market.

“UPI 2.0 is set to drive merchant payments and we should soon see them being integrated with PSP banks, with some innovative use cases. The ratio of merchant payments in the overall volume will consistently grow. We believe that fintech start-ups and ecosystem players will gain from UPI 2.0 and bring innovations for consumers,” NPCI had told Business Standard earlier.

UPI 2.0’s features such as overdraft facility, one-time mandate, receipt of invoice in the inbox, signed intent and QR are expected to further boost UPI usage.