The digital payment transactions have increased significantly in the last few years, with the overall transactions seeing a 44.32% jump in volume and 16.36% in value in the fiscal year 2024 (FY2023-24) as compared to FY2022-23, according to the Ministry of Finance data.

The cumulative digital transactions in FY24 stood at 16,443 crore, which amounted to ₹24.28 lakh crore, up from 11,393 crore transactions worth ₹20.86 lakh crore in FY23.

Overall, UPI+USSD leads in volume share, while RTGS tops in total value of these digital transactions.

In volume, Unified Payments Interface (UPI)+USSD holds a lion's share at 13,112.95 crore transactions, around 79% of total digital transactions volume, which amounted to ₹1.9 lakh crore in FY24. USSD (unstructured supplementary service data) service allows users to send and receive money from a basic feature phone without the internet.

The other modes of transactions are way behind in volume, with the prepaid payment instruments accounting for 787 crore transactions worth ₹0.28 lakh crore and NEFT at 726 crore transactions worth ₹3.9 lakh crore, making it the 'second most preferred mode' in value after the RTGS.

The FinMin data shows a total of 600.53 crore IMPS transactions were recorded in FY24, which amounted to ₹0.64 lakh crore. The RTGS transaction volume stood at 27 crore, with its value at ₹17.08 lakh crore, the highest share in the overall value term in FY24. Credit card transactions stood at 356 crore in FY24, with a value of ₹0.18 lakh crore, while debit card transactions were at 228.60 crore, with value at ₹0.59 lakh crore.

All major digital payment modes, including RTGS, IMPS, NEFT, UPI, credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid payment instruments saw a significant rise in FY24 as compared to FY23, both in volume as well as value terms.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance Pankaj Chaudhary says the government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been taking up various initiatives to expand the global reach of UPI and the RuPay Card network. These efforts include interlinking the fast payment systems on an intra-operable basis as well as provisioning of payment acceptance infrastructure in other countries.

Both UPI and RuPay credit cards have seen a significant growth in India. Apart from India, UPI is live in 7 countries (UAE, Nepal, Bhutan, Singapore, Mauritius, France, and Sri Lanka), and RuPay Cards acceptance is live in 6 countries (Nepal, Bhutan, Singapore, UAE, Mauritius, and Maldives). "Such facility will not only enable real-time and cost-effective cross-border payments but also benefit Indian tourists and students to make seamless payments abroad," Chaudhary tells the Lok Sabha.

He says UPI is also being linked with the Fast Payment Systems (FPSs) of other countries to facilitate cross-border payments. "Such facility has already been made live with Singapore w.e.f. February, 2023. This has helped Indian customers to send and receive money directly through UPI, which in turn brings down the average cost of these cross-border remittances from Singapore to India and vice-versa."

According to the minister, the interlinking of UPI with the fast payment systems of other countries may aid in strengthening the remittance economy of India. "It provides a 24x7 real-time, transparent, accessible, and cost-effective mobile app-based alternative for making remittance payments to India, enhancing the convenience compared to the traditional modes of making remittance payments."

Besides, RuPay credit card has emerged as a significant alternative to international giants like Visa and Mastercard. India has seen a two-fold rise in UPI transactions on RuPay credit cards during the current financial year 2024-25 till October 2024. The UPI transactions on RuPay credit cards surged to 75 crore in volume terms, while they surged to ₹63,825.80 crore in value terms as of October 31, 2024. These numbers doubled from FY24 when the UPI transactions via RuPay credit cards stood at 36.2 crore, amounting to ₹33,439.24 crore. In value terms in FY25, Maharashtra led with UPI transactions worth ₹692 crore, Tamil Nadu at ₹692 crore and followed by Telangana at ₹506 crore.