Covid-19 March

UPI crosses 100 crore transactions in March despite COVID-19 lockdown and Yes Bank crisis

MUMBAI: Unified Payment Interface (UPI) lodged over 1 billion transactions in March even as both value and volume of payments on the channel showed decline from previous months due to curbs on daily commerce and limited economic activity on account of restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19 and Yes BankNSE related disruptions.

A total of 1.25 billion UPI transactions worth Rs.2.06 lakh crore in the month of March was processed by National Payments Corporation of India, the umbrella organization responsible for operating retail payments. This is a 6% fall in volume and 7% decline in value of UPI transactions compared to 1.33 billion transactions worth Rs.2.22 lakh crore that were made in February, latest data disclosed by NPCI on its twitter page showed.

Nearly all digital channels operated by NPCI such as IMPS, Fastag and Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AePS) recorded reduced traffic in March due to COVID-19 related restrictions even as government, RBI, NPCI and bank advised citizens to make more digital payments to avoid cash-based physical payments citing health risks.

Furthermore, Aadhar based AePS central to financial inclusion drive in rural areas also recorded a 16% decline in volumes processed with 18.1 crore transactions worth Rs.10170 crore processed in the said timeframe, data from NPCI showed.

– By Ashwin Manikanda, ET Bureau | Last Updated: Apr 01, 2020, 07.10 PM IST