As per NCPI, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded 18.30 billion transactions in the month of March. Previously, it stood at 16.11 billion in February. With this, it represents a 13.6% month-on-month growth which comes to about 36% year-on-year increase.

UPI crossed the 18 billion transaction volume mark on a monthly basis for the first time. So to say, the overall transaction amount in the month of March increased by 12.80% to Rs 24.77 lakh crore approximately. It stood at Rs 21.96 lakh crore in the month of February.

Also to note,  compared to 575 million in February, the average daily transaction count in March was at 590 million. Hence, from Rs 78,446 crore in the February month, the average daily transaction amount also saw an increase to Rs 79,910 crore in March.

There were several noteworthy factors that have steered this growth, which include the widespread adoption of UPI by merchants across sectors, coupled with government initiatives with regards to promoting digital transactions, and increased consumer awareness and convenience.

For instance, the Indian government recently approved a new scheme to encourage small merchants to use digital payments through its BHIM-UPI platform. With a budget of Rs 1,500 crore, the 'Incentive Scheme for Promotion of Low-Value BHIM-UPI Transactions (P2M)' will run from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025.

Furthermore the leading UPI apps which include PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm have been dominating the market in the month of February, while, Flipkart’s Super.money entered the top five for the first time.