UPI transactions see slight monthly decline in February — but that may be misleading

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions reported a slight decrease in both volume and value in February 2024, according to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The number of UPI transactions for the month stood at 12.1 billion, compared to 12.2 billion in January, with a transaction value of ₹18.28 lakh crore, down from ₹18.41 lakh crore.

However, the payments made through UPI saw 61% year-on-year growth in volume and 48% year-on-year growth in transaction value, NPCI said.

Sunil Rongala, Senior Vice President and Head, Strategy, Innovation & Analytics at Worldline India, emphasised that comparing the figures might be misleading due to the shorter month of February.

He suggested a more meaningful metric is transactions per day, revealing an increase from 393 million transactions a day in January to 417 million transactions a day in February 2024.

Rongala expressed confidence in the growth trajectory, stating, "Given the trajectory of growth, we stand by our previous estimate that UPI monthly transactions, in all likelihood, will touch 20 billion by the end of FY2025."

Meanwhile, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions experienced a 5% increase in volume and a 0.4% rise in value in February.

The transaction count rose from 509 million in January to 535 million in February, with the value reaching ₹5.68 lakh, up from ₹5.66 lakh crore in January.

In the case of FASTag transactions, there was a marginal increase in value, reaching ₹5,582 crore in February compared to ₹5,560 crore in January.

However, the transaction count saw a 2.4% dip, falling to 323 million in February from 331 million in January.