UPI transactions at record high in April, touch Rs 14.07 trn

Some 1 bn transactions worth around Rs 1.37 trn happened during the last three days of April

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) transactions scaled a record high in April, clocking Rs 14.07 trillion in terms of value and 8.9 billion in volume. This is a marginal rise of 0.14 per cent and 2 per cent respectively, compared to Rs 14.05 trillion and 8.7 billion in March.

Close to 1 billion transactions worth around Rs 1.37 trillion happened during the last three days of April, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Compared to April 2022, transactions last month were higher by 59 per cent in terms of volume and 44 per cent in terms of value. In April 2022, over 558 crore transactions happened with a value of Rs 9.8 trillion.

The momentum in UPI transactions continued in April after a rise in March that was attributed to year-end transactions, specially investments, small ticket purchases and online payments. In February, there were 7.5 billion transactions worth Rs 12.35 trillion.

According to NPCI, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions saw a marginal decline in April to 496 million in volume and Rs 5.21 trillion in value. This was compared to 497 million and Rs 5.46 trillion in March 2023. This was a rise from 447.8 million transactions to the value of around Rs 4.68 trillion in February. Interestingly, the IMPS transaction count was 15 per cent up in volume and 22 per cent in value compared to April 2023.

FASTag transactions in April saw a marginal decline of 0.47 per cent in volume to 305 million, up from 306.3 million in March 2023. However, in value terms it increased by 2 per cent o Rs 5,149 crore, up from Rs 5,067 crore last year. This segment also saw 15 per cent volume growth and 22 per cent value growth compared to April 2022.

During the month under review, Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) saw a dip of 7 per cent to 102 million, as against 109.7 million in March 2023. In value terms, the decline was around 3 per cent to Rs 29,640 crore in April, as against Rs 30,541 crore in March. Still, this was a rise of 2 per cent in volume and 4 per cent in value compared to April last year.