India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions increased to ₹1.24 lakh crores worth in transacted value in the year 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated while presenting the Union Budget for 2023-24.

What Happened? Sitharaman, while presenting the Union Budget 2023 on Wednesday, highlighted how the country witnessed a surge in digital payments through the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in 2022, increasing to ₹1.24 lakh crore transactions from 2021’s ₹73 lakh crore figure.

The Economic Survey 2023, presented on Tuesday revealed that UPI alone accounted for as much as 52% of the total 8,840 crore financial digital transactions that took place in the country in 2022, up from 27% of 4,600 crore digital transactions in 2021.

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The survey added that UPI-based transactions in value and volume terms have been rising at an average rate of 121% and 114% respectively, between 2019 and 2022. In December 2022, UPI touched its highest-ever mark with 782 crore transactions worth ₹12.8 lakh crore.

To add to figures updated till December 2022 in the Economic Survey 2023, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said on Wednesday that UPI had crossed 800 crore transactions in January, with transactional value touching nearly ₹13 lakh crore.

The Economic Survey also pointed out that the success of UPI is not restricted to India. The NPCI is pushing for the adoption of UPI/RuPay-powered apps in international markets such as Singapore, UAE, France, and the Netherlands among others.

UPI has consistently been the biggest mode of online payments in India since 2020, facilitating inter-bank peer-to-peer and person-to-merchant transactions. The volume of transactions on the platform outpaces card payments in the country by leaps and bounds.

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