UPI payments at record high in July, data shows

Transactions worth 2.90 lakh crore took place in July

Along with social distancing and sanitising surfaces at every opportunity, contactless payment has become the norm during the coronavirus pandemic.

Data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) show that Unified Payment Interface (UPI) payments recorded 1.5 billion transactions in July, the highest so far.

Transactions on UPI were around Rs 2.22 lakh crore in February. However, during the national lockdown the net worth of these transactions dipped to Rs 1.51 lakh crore in April.

Transaction volumes in March and April were down nearly 23 percent, compared to the pre-Covid months of January and February.

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Data released yesterday showed that the transactions shot up as restrictions and movement of goods eased boosting the highest the e-payment volumes amounting to Rs 2.90 lakh crore.

The number of transactions also jumped from over 999 million in April to 1,497 million in July.

The number of banks that are using the platform have increased from 146 in February to 164 in July.

This increasing adoption of digital payment methods during the pandemic has been seen as a sign of a pandemic-induced payment behaviour change among customers, experts told The Economic Times.

READ: UPI payments hit all-time high of 1.34 billion transactions in June

The government, NCPI and the Reserve Bank of India have been campaigning aggressively for Indians to adopt contactless payment options using UPI.