The number of digital payment transactions reported in India increased to 244.81 crores in August 2018, a growth over three-fold since October 2016, reported the Ministry Electronics and Information and Technology.
This growth underlines the massive growth pertaining to digital payments since the demonetisation, the IT Ministry has said.
“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,” said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, in its official communique.
The number of digital payment transactions increased by 207 percent to reach 244.81 crores in August 2018 as compared to 79.67 crore in October 2016, it said.
Further, total value of such transactions increased from Rs 108.7 lakh crore in October 2016 to Rs 204.86 lakh crore in August 2018, a growth of 88 percent.
“Over the past two years, digital payment transactions have registered a tremendous growth in India,” the ministry added.
On November 8, 2016, the centre announced a ban on old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, to curb the menace of black money in the system. The move had boosted the adoption of online modes of payment by many folds.
“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.
