India logs 23.06 billion digital transactions in Q3 FY23

India logged 23.06 billion digital transactions including from the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), debit and credit cards, prepaid payment instruments and prepaid cards, amounting to INR 38.3 trillion in the third quarter of 2022, according to a report from Worldline India.

Transactions through UPI topped, clocking over 19.65 billion transactions in volume and INR 32.5 trillion in value. UPI transactions volume and value almost doubled since last year as it recorded about an 88%  increase in volume and over 71% increase in value in Q3, compared to the same quarter last year. According to the report, UPI Person-to-Merchant (P2M) and Person-to-Person (P2P) accounted for 42% of total transaction volume, emerging as the most chosen payment method among consumers.

Credit and Debit cards

Credit and debit card payments accounted for 7% of the volume and 14% of the value of the transactions. According to the report, the total transaction between credit cards and debit cards accounted for 65% of the transactions, and the remaining 35%  has been shared between UPI P2P, UPI P2M, and prepaid cards. There were 1.01 billion credit and debit cards in circulation by the end of the third quarter. Credit card volume reached 725 million and value was at INR 3.5 trillion in Q3 2022.

On the other hand, the volume and value of debit card transactions were 907 million and INR 1.88 trillion, respectively.

POS terminals

The total number of Point of Sale (POS) terminals installed by merchant-acquiring banks crossed seven million units by September this year. POS deployment increased by more than 41% reaching 7.03 million in the third quarter of this year, compared to the same period in 2021. 

Online transactions

For online transactions, gaming, utility and financial services contributed to over 86% in terms of volume and 47% in terms of value. 

Toll tickets

According to the report, 58.78 million FASTags have been issued till September, with 36 banks. FASTag is an electronic toll collection system in India, operated by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).

There is no doubt that the digital payment landscape in India has transformed considerably and digital payments transactions have been consistently increasing over the last few years, as a part of the Government of India’s strategy to digitise the financial sector and economy. Additionally, concerted efforts have been made to promote financial inclusion as one of the national objectives of the country.

Source: Business Standard