Digital transactions surge 25 per cent per month since November 8

Digital transactions leapfrogged around 25 per cent per month since November 8 amid government's demonetisation drive led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a predominantly cashless economy.

While card payments surged the most in organised retail, even small roadside merchants appeared to go the digital way. 

"From month on month, now we are checking weekly growth data which is showing a jump of around 5 per cent per week, which is a very healthy number," said Lokvir Kapoor, chief executive officer at Pine Labs, which facilitates installation of point of sale (PoS) terminals at merchant outlets.

"The average value of each transaction which had slipped to Rs 2,000 from Rs 2,700 before November 8 has now stabilised at that level." 
Pine Labs is processing around 1.1-1.2 million transactions on an average per day after the withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Before November 8, the number was around 5 lakh on an average weekday. 

"We are mostly prevalent in smaller cities like Jaipur and Chandigarh and are operating 10,500 PoS terminals presently. Now, our call centre is flooded with queries from merchants who wish to accept digital payments; we received an order of 3,000 terminals over the past one month," said Jitendra Gupta, managing director, PayU India.