INDIA BCCOMES FASTEST COUNTRY In the World In Making Payments, UPI Has Big Role

India has become the fastest payment country in the world. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has a major contribution in this achievement. In the country, the use of debit cards and credit cards and other means of payment is decreasing.

Inter-bank transactions can be done immediately through smartphones from UPI developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). In the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a fintech note ‘Growing Retail Digital Payments: The Value of Interopeability’ has said that the use of UPI has increased rapidly in the last few years. However, the use of some means of payment like debit cards and credit cards is decreasing. The country has more than 18 billion transactions per month through UPI. IMF has reported, “India has become the fastest payment country in the world.” Through such a fintech note, policy makers are advised by IMF on important issues. The IMF says that the scope of payments can increase rapidly in digital ways with interopeable payment systems like UPI.

This Fintech note states that it is difficult to estimate the use of cash because cash transactions are often not recorded in any laser, especially in the informal sector. Recently, the Central Government had reiterated its commitment to promote payments digitally through UPI. Along with this, the government had clarified that no proposal to impose Goods and Services Tax (GST) on transactions worth more than Rs 2,000 from UPI is being considered.

The consultancy firm PWC report stated that retail digital payments have increased by about 90 times in the last 12 years. NPCI also plans to increase UPI features. UPI transactions are placed in two categories-Person-to-Person (P2P) and Person-to-CRINT (P2M). NPCI aims to add 20 to 30 crore new users for UPI. The number of retail users of this payment system is more than 45 crores.