The number of UPI transactions in the country has witnessed a spike in the last couple of years. UPI transactions registered in FY 21-22 were 45 billion, showing an 8 times growth in the last 3 years and 50 times growth in the last 4 years.

For promotion of digital payments, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has introduced the Incentive Scheme for promotion of RuPay Debit Cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions for the current financial year. This was stated by Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

As a result of the various initiatives taken by the Government, the Minister stated, there has been a paradigm shift in digital transactions in India which is reflected in terms of the increase in the volume of digital transactions over the last four financial years.

The Minister said that there has been a growth of more than 200% in digital payment volume during the last four years since 2018-19. Further, as per the data sourced from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI transactions registered in FY 21-22 were 45 billion, showing 8 times growth in the last 3 years and 50 times growth in the last 4 years.

The Minister said that the scheme provides financial incentive to banks for promoting point-of-sale (PoS) and e-commerce transactions using RuPay Debit Cards and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions of low value (i.e up to Rs 2,000) on the BHIM-UPI platform. The scheme also promotes UPI lite and UPI 123 PAY as economical and user-friendly digital payment solutions. MeitY has allocated Rs 2,600 crore for the scheme for FY 2022-23.

The incentive scheme has promoted digital payments by incentivising banks to build a robust digital payments ecosystem and to promote RuPay Debit Cards and BHIM-UPI as low-cost digital payments mode across all sectors and segments of population, the Minister stated.

Giving more information, the Minister said that banks are adopting the latest digital technologies to provide their customers with enhanced and hassle free banking services in a digital mode. Further, promotion of digital payment is one of the priorities of the Government to facilitate hassle free and seamless banking transactions for the people of the country.

Several initiatives have been taken by the Government, RBI, NPCI and Banks, to promote digital transactions and to create awareness about digital payments in the country. Some of the initiatives are BHIM-UPI, UPI-123, Aadhar Payment Bridge, AePS etc, the Minster stated. (KB/IANS)