Digital Payments Rebound In May Following Lockdown-Induced Dip

Transactions across digital payment platforms rebounded in May after falling significantly a month earlier.

Data released by the National Payments Corporation of India on Monday on Twitter shows a resurgence in the use of digital payments as consumers have been shying away from cash owing to fears around the transmission of the Covid-19 virus through currency notes.

While all digital payment platforms witnessed a rise in transactions in May, the total value of transactions are still below their historical highs, except for the Aadhaar Enabled Payments System.

AEPS Continues To Soar

Transactions on the AEPS continued to reach historical highs as the government is using the platform to provide cash transfers under its Covid-19 relief package.

Financial transactions on AEPS grew to over Rs 18,129 crore in May compared to Rs 14,708 crore in the previous month, according to data released by NPCI on June 3 on Twitter.

In March this year, the platform registered Rs 10,170 crore worth of financial transactions.

Despite a large amount of transactions being conducted on the platform in the past few months, AEPS transaction failure rates increased in April for companies that are providing last-mile delivery of cash withdrawals, BloombergQuint reported on May 6.

UPI Transactions Regain Growth

The value of transactions on the Unified Payments Interface grew 45% over the previous month to Rs 2.18 lakh crore in May.

The value had jumped to the highest in the interface's four-year history in February at Rs 2.22 lakh crore.

By volume, a total of 123 crore transactions were conducted on the UPI platform compared with 99 crore in April and 125 crore in March, according to NPCI data.

IMPS Reverses From Steep Drop

Transactions on the Immediate Payments System, used for larger value payments, grew 40% month-on-month to Rs 1.68 lakh crore in May.

The overall value of IMPS transactions, however, was about 17% lower than in March and 22.5% lower than in February.

Surge In Bharat Bill Payments

While transactions on the Bharat Bill Payments System fell 70% between April and March this year, the platform witnessed a surge in May as a few new customers and bill payment companies signed up.

A total of 1.65 crore transactions worth Rs 2,178.72 crore were processed on the BBPS platform in May. That's a 60% increase over the previous month, which witnessed 1.27 crore transactions.

In March, close to 1.6 crore transactions worth Rs 1,954 crore were processed on the BBPS.

There are total 216 live bill payment companies on the platform accepting payments as of May 2020 compared to 182 in March.

FASTag Jumps Nearly Five-Fold

Supply chains for various goods and services halted in April due to the restrictions imposed on inter-state trade and transport, leading to a crash in the NPCI's FASTag or National Electronic Toll Collection platform.

The platform is used to process payments for vehicles passing through toll plazas across highways. Since January this year, the government has made it mandatory for all four-wheeler passenger and goods vehicles to register and use the platform.

Payments on the platform have increased nearly fivefold to 5.5 crore transactions, worth Rs 1,142.3 crore, in May. That compares with a little over 1 crore transactions worth Rs 247.6 crore in the previous month.

While toll collections were suspended for most of the last month, the National Highways Authority of India resumed collections on national highways from April 20.

This story was updated after NPCI released AEPS data on June 3.