Several popular digital channels operated by the National Payments Corp of India (NPCI) reported their highest monthly transactions in July, an indication that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to accelerated adoption of digital payments among Indians.
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and the Bharat Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) have reported record-high volumes in the past month, as per data released on Saturday. Experts cited increased transactions on edtech and ecommerce platforms and for online bill payments for the surge.
UPI reported 1.5 billion transactions worth ₹2.9 lakh crore in July, up from 1.34 billion transactions and ₹2.6 lakh crore in June. Transactions have doubled since last year.
“We have seen a record month in terms of both transaction value and volume, and it is especially satisfying to see our efforts in helping revive the merchant ecosystem where both offline digital transactions and ecommerce payments have gone back to pre-Covid levels,” said Hemant Gala, the vice president of payments and financial services at PhonePe that works on the UPI platform.
The IMPS facility, used for high-value bank-to-bank transfers, posted 222 million transactions worth ₹2.25 lakh crore in July, up from 199 million and ₹2.06 lakh crore in June.
In the BBPS channel, the number of transactions grew to 20.16 million bills from 17.64 million in June. The value rose to ₹3,707 crore from ₹2,969 crore.
The NPCI-operated payment service is an integrated bill payment system through a network of banks and live billers. The number of registered billers on the platform has nearly tripled in July to 748 from 245 in June.
“We have seen spends in categories such as ecommerce and online education pick up further steam in July from the June trends,” said Raman Khanduja, the chief executive of digital payments platform Mintoak. “However, offline retail payments are still muted owing to the impact of lockdown on small businesses in metros.”
Meanwhile, transactions on the National Electronic Toll Collection, which powers Fastag payments on highways, showed a recovery — 87 million transactions worth ₹1,623 crore in July, compared with just 10 million transactions worth ₹247 crore in April when the country was in lockdown, according to NPCI data.
The recovery in electronic toll volumes indicates a return of road traffic and intercity commute. For comparison, February had seen a record 110 million Fastag transactions worth ₹1,843 crore.
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