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Digital payments registered a sharp rebound in June as the economy began to slowly open up and consumers continuing to prefer contactless payments.
The Centre’s BHIM UPI scaled a new high of 134 crore transactions last month and processed a record ₹2.61-lakh crore of payments. This is the highest ever in terms of transactions as well as volumes that UPI has processed since its launch in 2016.
UPI transactions amounted to 123 crore involving ₹2.18-lakh crore of payments in May.
Data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Wednesday further revealed that transactions through Bharat BillPay also reached an all-time high of 1.76 crore in June involving ₹2,969.66 crore.
The number of live billers on the platform also increased to 245 last month from 216 in May.
“Bharat BillPay has made recurring payments of over 240 billers easier and more accessible across the country,” said NPCI in a tweet.
The service, which can be used for paying bills of utilities, loan EMIs and even school fees, had processed 1.65 crore transactions of ₹2,178.72 crore in May.
IMPS transactions
The Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) processed 19.89 crore transactions in June amounting to ₹2.06 lakh crore. This was higher than the 16.6 crore transactions it had processed in May involving ₹1.69-lakh crore.
However, IMPS transactions are still away from the peak of 25.95 crore transactions totalling ₹2.16-lakh crore that was registered in January.
Transactions through FASTags also rose in June to 8.19 crore involving ₹1,511.93 crore. In comparison, it had processed 5.51 crore transactions totalling ₹1,142.34 crore in May.
Meanwhile, the Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS), which has played a significant role in direct benefit transfers, registered 39.73 crore transactions in June compared with 40.51 crore transactions in May.
In June, the value of transactions was , higher. The value of OFF-US transaction (where the issuing bank and acquiring bank are different entities) was ₹19,981.90 crore in June against ₹18,129.85 crore in May.
Payment companies say that since people continue to practice social distancing and do not want to use cash or even cards to avoid the chance of infection, digital payments have become the preferred option.
A recent report by S&P Global Market Intelligence noted that mobile payments surged by 163 per cent in 2019 even before the coronavirus pandemic, and are expected to gain further traction due to the current concerns over currency notes.
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