Digital payments have remained robust in February with transactions on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform remaining well above the ₹8-lakh crore mark.

According to the data released by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) on Tuesday, UPI processed 457.2 crore transactions worth ₹8.26-lakh crore in February, as against 461.7 crore transactions amounting to ₹8.31-lakh crore in January.

Third straight growth month

However, the volume and value of payments on UPI remained at levels similar to that of December 2021. Even compared to February 2021, the value and volume of UPI transactions has shown humongous growth at 94.5 per cent and 97.5 per cent, respectively. This is the third straight month when UPI payments have remained above the ₹8-lakh crore mark and it is expected to register further growth in coming months with plans to encourage its use in smaller towns as well as the UPI Autopay and IPO facilities.

According to the DigiDhan dashboard, a total of 3,603.33 crore transactions have been processed through BHIM UPI in this fiscal. Meanwhile, transactions on the Immediate Payment Service also remained robust last month. IMPS processed 42.09 crore payments worth ₹3.84-lakh crore in February 2022 compared to 44.01 crore transactions valued at ₹3.87-lakh crore in January.

On a year on year basis, this was a 32.1 per cent growth in volume terms and a near 40 per cent jump in value terms compared to February 2021. IMPS has processed a total of 371.91 crore transactions this fiscal. As many as 9.44 crore transactions amounting to ₹25,514.75 crore were processed in February through Aadhaar enabled Payment Service, as against 11.5 crore payments worth ₹29,345.91 crore in January.

FASTag payments, too, saw a sharp uptick in growth. As many as 24.36 crore transactions worth ₹3,631.22 crore were processed through FASTags in February compared to 23.1 crore transactions amounting to ₹3,603.71 crore in January.