New Delhi, Nov 01, 2024, IANS

New Delhi, Nov 1 (IANS) The Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based digital transactions continued to surge and in the month of October, the country saw 16.58 billion transactions worth Rs 23.5 lakh crore, the highest numbers since the UPI became operational in April 2016. According to data shared by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Friday, October saw a 10 per cent increase in volume and 14 per cent in value compared to September. Daily UPI transactions in October crossed 535 million in volume and Rs 75,801 crore in value — compared to 501 million in volume and Rs 68,800 crore in September. There were 467 million Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions in October, up 9 per cent from 430 million in September. In value terms, IMPS transactions grew by 11 per cent to Rs 6.29 lakh crore compared to Rs 5.65 lakh crore in September. Meanwhile, the number of FASTag transactions increased 8 per cent in October to 345 million, compared to 318 million in September. Transactions worth Rs 6,115 crore were made in October, up from Rs 5,620 crore in September. There were 126 million transactions on the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) in October, up 26 per cent from 100 million in September, as per the NPCI data. According to a latest paper by economist Pradip Bhuyan from the Reserve Bank’s Department of Currency Management, digital transactions have surged in such a fashion in India that cash usage, which still accounts for 60 per cent of consumer expenditure (as of March 2024) is rapidly declining. The share of digital payments more than doubled from 14-19 per cent in March 2021 to 40-48 per cent in March 2024, with unified payments interface (UPI) playing a key role. UPI-based transaction volume surged 52 per cent to 78.97 billion in the first half of this year (H1 2024), from 51.9 billion in the same period last year. Similarly, the value of transactions grew by 40 per cent, increasing from Rs 83.16 lakh crore to Rs 116.63 lakh crore in the first six months of this year.