New Year’s Eve UPI payments hit Rs 1.1 lakh Cr as online card spend dips
UPI transactions surged 17.02% to Rs 1.12 lakh crore on December 31, according to RBI's payments settlement data, up from Rs 93,147.85 crore on NYE last year.
India’s New Year’s Eve spending crossed Rs 1.1 lakh crore, as partygoers and last-minute shoppers leaned heavily on digital payments on the country’s biggest consumption night.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions surged 17.02% to Rs 1.12 lakh crore on December 31, according to payments settlement data from the Reserve Bank of India, up from Rs 93,147.85 crore on New Year’s Eve last year.
Card usage painted a more nuanced picture. Credit card spending at physical point-of-sale terminals rose to Rs 1,879.85 crore from Rs 1,756.07 crore a year earlier, suggesting steady discretionary spending at restaurants, hotels, and brick-and-mortar outlets.
In contrast, credit card transactions at ecommerce platforms slipped marginally to Rs 3,445.98 crore, down from Rs 3,483.90 crore in 2024. Notably, in 2023, ecommerce credit card spends were just Rs 1,658.92 crore, almost half of 2024's figures.
The marginal dip in credit card spending on ecommerce platforms on New Year’s Eve may partly reflect the disruption caused by the gig worker strike called by the Gig & Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU), which said over 1 lakh workers across 22 cities participated, including around 14,000 union members from major metros such as Delhi and Mumbai.
The union has been demanding higher payouts, better working conditions and social security benefits for gig workers. While the numbers represent a fraction of India’s estimated 12.7 million gig workers, the protest coincided with one of the busiest consumption days of the year and called for boycotts from supporting netizens.
Food delivery and ecommerce platforms, however, played down the impact. Swiggy, Zomato, and magicpin said order volumes hit record highs, with Eternal Founder Deepinder Goyal stating that Zomato and Blinkit were “unaffected by calls for strikes” and delivered more than 75 lakh orders during the day.
Debit cards saw modest gains online, with ecommerce transactions inching up to Rs 517.42 crore from Rs 507.48 crore. At physical stores, however, debit card spending was largely flat, easing to Rs 783.31 crore compared with Rs 786.74 crore a year earlier, reinforcing the view that UPI is steadily displacing debit cards for everyday payments.
Edited by Suman Singh