Festival season brings UPI boom, transactions hit record Rs 27 trn in Oct

Volume was up by 5 per cent and value by 10 per cent in October versus September this year

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system clocked its highest-ever numbers in volume and value in October, with 20.7 billion transactions worth Rs 27.28 trillion being made during the period, driven by increased business activities due to the festival season, coupled with GST 2.0 reliefs.

 

In October, volume was up by 5 per cent and value by 10 per cent versus September this year. This was compared to the previous high of 20.008 billion transactions in August this year and the highest value of Rs 25.14 trillion in May. In September, this was 19.63 billion in volume and Rs 24.9 trillion in value. This is the best-ever month, after UPI became operational in April 2016, witnessing 668 million daily transactions valued at Rs 87,993 crore.

 

“This festival season, UPI has been a key driver of convenience and commerce, from small purchases to larger business payments and supporting both consumers and local merchants. Bharat is now driving this momentum, with local retailers and assisted digital networks helping new users transact confidently. As credit on UPI and interoperable services evolve, India is steadily moving towards a truly inclusive and accessible digital economy," said Anand Kumar Bajaj, founder, managing director, and chief executive officer, PayNearby.

 

"The steady growth of 25 per cent in transaction volume and 16 per cent in value year-on-year shows how UPI continues to enable easy, secure payments across communities," he added.

 

Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) for the month was also up by 3 per cent to 404 million in October, up from 394 million in September this year. Interestingly, August numbers had touched 477 million.

 

In value, it was up 8 per cent to Rs 6.42 trillion versus Rs 5.98 trillion in September. In August, this was Rs 6.31 trillion for 488 million transactions. The number of daily transactions dipped to 13.02 million this month against 13.15 million in September. The number of daily transactions in value was up 4 per cent to Rs 20,709 crore from Rs 19,895 crore last month. The volume was down by 14 per cent, while value was up by 2 per cent versus October 2024.

 

FASTag transactions in October were up 8 per cent to 361 million from 333 million in September. This was 371 million in August. Value was also up 4 per cent to Rs 6,686 crore from Rs 6,421 crore in September, landing closer to the August value of Rs 6,661 crore. Average daily transactions also increased to 11.64 million with a value of Rs 216 crore.

 

In October, Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) transactions stood at 112 million, up 6 per cent from 106 million in September. The value of transactions was Rs 30,509 crore against Rs 27,388 crore the previous month. In August, volume was at 103 million with value at Rs 32,329 crore. The number of daily transactions came up to 3.6 million from 3.55 million during the last month, bringing the value to Rs 984 crore from Rs 913 crore last month.