The number of transactions done through the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has increased by 180 times since its inception in December 2016, according to data given during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha.
However, private players have cut into the government-backed Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app's share of the transactions, while card-based transactions are still the most preferred online payment method.
Healthy growth
The number of transactions through UPI rose from 41.5 lakh in January 2017 to a whopping 7,545.4 lakh in June 2019. The number of banks on the interface also saw a significant growth.
From 41% in January 2017, BHIM's share of transactions in overall UPI has fallen to just over 2% in June 2019. Competition from private players has led to this.
Cards ace the pack
Three out of every five online transactions were carried out with either debit or credit cards, while 24% were done through net banking in FY19. UPI accounted for about 17%.
Within UPI transactions, 54% were carried out using GPay app, while BHIM app constituted only 4.1%. The graph shows the share of UPI transactions carried out in FY19.
It is to be noted that the National Payments Corporation of India, the umbrella organisation of all retail payments in India, does not give the split among private players, and the numbers above are based on an industry report by Razorpay.
Smaller transactions
Though the usage of UPI is picking up, the interface is mostly used for transactions of lesser value, according to the Razorpay report. The graph below shows the average money spent per transaction among payment modes between April and May 2019.
UPI and wallets recorded the least money spent (average) per transaction, with EMIs and net banking accounting for the big-ticket transactions.
Published - July 23, 2019 02:50 pm IST
