Digital payment transaction volumes rise to 244.08 crore in August 2018: IT Ministry

The number of digital payment transactions in India touched 244.81 crore in August 2018, more than three-fold rise from October 2016, underlining the massive adoption of digital payment modes over the last two years, the IT Ministry said on Friday.

“New payment modes Bharat Interface for Money-Unified Payments Interface (BHIM-UPI), Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS) and National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) have transformed digital payment ecosystem by increasing Person to Person (P2P) as well as Person to Merchant (P2M) payments,” the statement by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said.

The number of digital payment transactions zoomed 207 per cent to 244.81 crore in August 2018 as compared to 79.67 crore in October 2016, it said.

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Total value of such transactions, which stood at Rs 108.7 lakh crore in October 2016, increased 88 per cent to Rs 204.86 lakh crore in August 2018.

“Over the past two years, digital payment transactions have registered a tremendous growth in India,” the statement added.

The government had on November 8, 2016, announced a ban on old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, to curb black money in the system. The move had bolstered adoption of online modes of payment.

Outlining the high growth in new payment platforms, the statement noted that in October 2016, the number of transactions on BHIM-UPI was 1.03 lakh with a value of Rs 48 crore - a number that rose to 48.2 crore transactions with a value of Rs 74,978.2 crore in October 2018.

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The number of transactions on AePS increased to 15.07 crore with a value of Rs 5,893 crore in October 2018, from previous volumes of 2.57 crore with a value of Rs 221 crore in October 2016.

The statement pointed out that existing payment modes such as debit cards, credit cards, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and Pre-Paid Instruments (PPI) have registered substantial growth as well.

“With exponential growth, new payment modes have also emerged as a convenient alternative to existing payment modes like debit cards, credit cards, IMPS and PPI. For the first time, the number of monthly transactions under BHIM-UPI during Sept 2018 surpassed those of any other existing payment mode,” it added.