NPCI looks at USD 1 trillion worth of transactions through UPI on annual basis

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is looking at USD 1 trillion worth of transactions through UPI on an annual basis, as digital payments are progressing in the country. There is huge progress happening in digital payments in the country. Last year, the total digital payment transactions reached about 55 billion in terms of number, with all kinds of payments put together, said NPCI Managing Director and CEO Dilip Asbe while speaking at the Global FinTech Fest 2021 (GFF 2021).

“And, this year, we might have about 70 billion (number of digital transactions),” he said.

Last year, there were about 22 billion transactions on the UPI platform. This year, it might be around 40-45 billion transactions, he added.

“Looking at the value, we believe that the value of UPI will be well over USD 1 trillion on an annual basis. We are looking at about 300 million active users monthly on the digital payments ecosystem. All put together, UPI might be around 200 million,” Asbe said.

The NPCI chief said there is a large number of merchants who are accepting digital payments, including the smaller merchants, which is well over 50 million.

“However, I still believe that 10X growth is possible. The cash in circulation is about Rs 30 lakh crore. While it has been increasing constantly, digital payments are also increasing, even as the cash is still high,” he said.

He said schemes, such as direct benefit transfer (DBT) and the Jan Dhan Yojana, are driving the cash in circulation.

“I still believe that for a country like India, 10X growth is possible in digital payments,” he said.

NPCI is an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been termed as the revolutionary product in the payment system by the Corporation.