"If you look at on standalone basis, the country would have added 30-35 million customers on the digital platforms, who have stayed on digital platforms," NPCI Chief Operating Officer Dilip Asbe told reporters here.
He said the cash crunch after demonetisation pushed 10 crore people to use digital or cashless transactions. Even though many of them went back to using cash after that, over 30 million continue to use digital ways for payments.
There was a huge spike in digital transactions after the Government banned 86 per cent of the currency by value on November 8 last year. However, as the remonetisation progressed, there has been a month-on-month decline in digital transactions for two consecutive months till February.
Official data shows there was a 9.1 per cent fall in digital transactions in January 2017 over December 2016, while February witnessed a decline of 21.3 per cent over the preceding month.
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Simultaneously, work is going on to increase the number of touchpoints where the digital alternatives can work, he said, adding in the next two years these will jump 10 times to over 15 million.
The NPCI has filed for patent for the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and expects to get it in the next year, Asbe said.
Meanwhile, he said the soon-to-be launched Aaadhar pay will have a merchant discount rate (MDR) similar to the present 0.25 per cent on transactions under Rs 2,000.
Asbe was speaking after launching the Bhim-enablement service launched by Mastek-backed financial services start-up Benow in association with mid-size private lender Yes Bank.
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