Digital payments have significantly increased in recent years, as a result of coordinated efforts of the Government with all stakeholders. This was stated by Union Minister of State for Finance Dr. Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.
The Minister further stated that the total digital payment transactions volume increased from 2,071 crore in FY 2017-18 to 13,462 crore in FY 2022-23 at a CAGR of 45 per cent. During current FY 2023-24, digital payments transactions have reached 11,660 crore till 11.12.2023.
On the question of various digital payment products which span from retail to wholesale payments, that Minister stated that for wholesale payments, there is Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) payment system, and, for retail payments, the payment products are Unified Payments Interface (UPI), National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT), Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Credit and Debit cards, Prepaid Payment Instruments, National Automated Clearing House (NACH), Aadhaar enabled Payment Service (AePS) (Fund Transfers), BHIM Aadhaar Pay, and National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) (linked to bank account).
The Minister stated that the Government in coordination with RBI continuously aims to make digital payments user friendly while ensuring payment security. The efforts taken include, inter alia,
- conversational payments in UPI which enables users to engage in a conversation with an AI- powered system to initiate and complete transactions in a safe and secure environment,
- offline payments in UPI to increase the speed of small value transactions on UPI,
- expanding the scope and reach of e-RUPI vouchers,
- Linking RuPay Credit Cards to UPI, and
- Interoperable Card-less Cash Withdrawal (ICCW) at ATMs.
