India achieved a total number 8,193 crore digital payment transactions till March 20 across payment modes like Bharat Interface for Money- Unified Payments Interface (BHIM-UPI), Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), National Automated Clearing House (NACH) set up by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), debit cards, credit cards, NEFT, RTGS, PPI and others, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar told the Rajya Sabha.
“Over the year, digital payments transactions have grown multifold from 2,071 crore in FY2017-18 to 5,554 crore in FY2020-21. During current financial year i.e. FY2021-22, the total number of 8,193 crore digital payment transactions have been reported till 20th March 2022,” Chandrasekhar mentioned in his address to the upper house.
Chandrasekhar also mentioned that BHIM-UPI emerged as a preferred mode of payment among citizens, with record 452.75 crore digital payment transactions with a value of Rs 8.27 lakh crore till February 28. Total value of UPI-based digital transactions in India is Rs 81 lakh crore (FY2021-22); Rs 41 lakh crore (FY2020-21); Rs 21 lakh crore (2019-20); and Rs 9 lakh crore (FY2018-19), as per the NPCI data cited by the minister.
He also apprised the parliamentarians of the measures taken by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to promote digital payments across the country. These include incentive scheme for promoting RuPay debit cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (P2M). This incentive scheme facilitates banks to build robust digital payment ecosystem, promote RuPay debit cards and BHIM-UPI digital transactions across sectors and segments.
Other initiatives to boost digital payments across the country include BHIM cashback schemes for individuals, BHIM Aadhaa Merchant Incentive scheme, BHIM-UPI Merchant On-boarding scheme, Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) Reimbursement scheme, Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) and encouraging central and state government ministries and departments to improve digital payments acceptance infrastructure.
The MeitY also advised banks and payment service providers to organise awareness campaigns to promote secure payment practices and generate information security awareness.