New Delhi, Aug 5 || The daily unified payments interface (UPI)-based transactions have crossed 700 million for the first time, touching 707 million, according to the latest National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data.
The feat was achieved on August 2. Over the past two years, the number of daily transactions has doubled, even though growth has slowed down in comparison to previous years.
In August 2023, UPI was registering around 350 million transactions a day, which increased to 500 million daily transactions in August 2024.
The government has set a goal of achieving 100 crore transactions per day for UPI, and the platform is projected to reach this target next year at the current growth rate.
The business model of UPI should reintroduce merchant discount rates (MDR) to attain a billion transactions by the next year, according to fintech companies and payment associations. They asked the government to establish a marginal MDR for major merchants and high-value transactions.
While the government reduced the subsidies for UPI from around Rs 4,500 crore in FY 24 to Rs 1,500 crore in FY 25, it refused to accept the MDR demand of the ecosystem. Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also voiced support for the MDR demand of payment companies.