Total UPI transactions at an all-time high, crosses 900 million mark

Indian retail payments organisation, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), on Thursday revealed data which said the total Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in the country stood at 918.35 million (91.83 crore) in the month of August.

This is a 11.7 percent jump from July when the total UPI transactions in the country stood at 822.29 million (82.22 crore). 

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On the other hand, the total value transacted over the UPI network also increased in the month August. A total of Rs 1.54 lakh crore was transacted in the month of August. This is a 5.5 percent increase from the month of July when the total value transacted over UPI in the country stood at Rs 1.46 lakh crore. 

Additionally, the average transaction value of UPI payments stood at Rs 1,682 per transaction. This is a drop from the month of July when the average transaction value for a UPI transaction stood at Rs 1,780.

On Thursday, Bengaluru-based payments major, PhonePe, claimed market dominance in terms of UPI payments for the month of August, claiming to drive 37 percent of the total UPI transactions. The platform registered close to 343 million UPI payments in August.  

Just last week, NPCI, which operates the UPI infrastructure, rationalised merchant discount rates for BHIM UPI transactions to promote digital payments.

Merchant discount rates (MDR) for large ticket transactions was capped at a maximum of Rs 100 and made zero at offline merchants for transactions up to Rs 100. According to the latest notification, the MDR was also revised to 0.30 percent with a maximum cap of Rs 100 per transaction.

Before the change, it was capped at 0.25 percent for transactions up to Rs 2,000 and at 0.65 percent for transactions above Rs 2,000. The new MDR rates will come into effect from October 1, 2019.

In other data revealed by the NPCI, the total IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) transactions in the country stood at 200.14 million (or 20.01 crore) in August, with a total of Rs 1.89 lakh crore being transacted through the IMPS network.

While NETC (National Electronic Toll Collection) transactions didn’t see much change, standing at 27.78 million (or 2.77 crores); transactions at Aadhaar-related payment network, AEPS, took a slight dip standing at 218.75 million (or 21.87 crore) transactions in the month of August. 

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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