UPI transactions decline marginally in February to Rs 18.28 trillion

After scaling an all-time high in January, Unified Payment Interface (UPI) transactions in India saw a marginal dip in value and volume in February, falling 0.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively, compared to January. In value terms, transactions were seen at Rs 18.28 trillion, compared to Rs 18.41 trillion in January. The decline is mainly due to several reasons including a shorter month and technical breakdowns at multiple banks, say experts.

In volume terms, transactions were seen at 12.10 billion, compared to 12.20 billion in January. In December, this was Rs 18.23 trillion in value and 12.02 billion in volume. "One of the reasons behind this could be the technical breakdowns at multiple banks earlier in the month which led to the downtime of servers and failed UPI transactions. Another reason could also be that February is comparatively a shorter month with fewer days," said Akshay Mehrotra, co-founder and chief executive officer, Fibe, a leading fintech lender. "It is evident that UPI is one of the most preferred modes of digital payments among individuals. This can be seen from the increase in both volume and value of transactions each month," he added.

February numbers were 61 per cent higher in volume and 48 per cent in value, compared to the same month in 2023.

On the other hand, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions rose 5 per cent in volume and 0.4 per cent in value in February. In value terms, transactions were seen at Rs 5.68 trillion during the month, up from Rs 5.66 trillion in January. However, the number was lower than the December figures of Rs 5.7 trillion. On the other hand, the transaction count increased from 509 million in January to 535 million in February, up from 499 million in December.  February saw a 19 per cent growth in volume and 21 per cent in value compared to February 2023.

FASTag transactions rose marginally in value to Rs 5,582 crore in February, compared to Rs 5,560 crore in January. This was higher at Rs 5,861 crore in December. In transaction terms, the month saw a 2.4 per cent dip to 323 million versus 331 million in January. This was 348 million in December. The February numbers were 12 per cent higher in volume and 19 per cent in value compared to February 2023.

In February, the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) was down by 5 per cent to Rs 22,007 crore compared to Rs 23,057 crore in January. In December, the value was seen at Rs 25,162 crore. In volume terms, this was down from 86 million to 83 million in February. AwPS has seen a degrowth of 11 per cent in volume and 15 per cent in value during the same month last year.