In November, UPI Value Falls 8% and Volume Declines 7%

Nitin Konde, Varun Bhardwaj

Dec 3, 2024 — 3 min read

UPI Value Drops 8% in November, Volume Down 7%

According to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the volume of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions decreased by 7% to 15.48 billion in November, while the value of these transactions decreased by 8% to INR 21.55 trillion. They reached an all-time high in October thanks to festive sales.

October saw the most transactions through UPI since the digital system's launch in April 2016, with 16.58 billion totaling INR 23.5 trillion. The value was INR 20.64 trillion, and the volume was 15.04 billion in September. Due to an increase in person-to-merchant transactions (for the purchase of goods or services) over the festive season, October transactions were higher than November transactions.

This was a 38% increase in volume and a 24% increase in value compared to November 2023. The value of the transactions decreased from INR 75,801 crore in October to INR 71,840 crore in November of this year, as the number of daily transactions also decreased from 535 million in October to 516 million in November.

IMPS Transactions Declined by 13%

Transactions using the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) decreased 13% in November to 408 million from 467 million in October. In terms of value, they fell from INR 6.29 trillion in October to INR 5.58 trillion in November, an 11% decrease.

Last month's IMPS transactions had a 14% decrease in volume but a 4% increase in value when compared to November 2023. In comparison to last month, the number of daily transactions fell from 15 million to 14 million, and the value of daily transactions declined from INR 20,303 crore to INR 18,611 crore.

FASTag Transactions Increase by 4%

The number of FASTag transactions increased from 345 million in October to 359 million, a 4% increase. Compared to INR 6,115 crore in October, the value decreased by about 1% to INR 6,070 crore. This was 318 million and INR 5,620 million in September, respectively. Compared to the same month in 2023, the November FASTag data showed a 14% increase in value and a 12% increase in volume. There were 12 million transactions per day, up from 11.13 million.

Transactions through the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) fell 27% to 92 million from 126 million in October. From INR 32,493 crore in October to INR 23,844 crore during the review period, the value of transactions decreased by 27%. In September, there were 100 million transactions with a total value of INR 24,143 crore. Compared to the same period last year, the volume and value of AePS transactions decreased by 16% and 20%, respectively.

India's payments ecosystem is thinking of switching low-ticket transactions to UPI Lite, according to Dilip Asbe, managing director and CEO of the NPCI. This occurs months after the Reserve Bank of India raised the limit for UPI 123Pay transactions from INR 5,000 to INR 10,000. Similar to this, UPI Lite's transaction limit was increased from INR 500 to INR 1,000.