Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Payments through mobile phones in India recorded a 41 per cent jump in transaction volume to 88.54 billion and a 30 per cent rise in value to Rs 197.69 lakh crore in the second half of 2024. India’s digital payments ecosystem witnessed a significant surge in the second half of 2024, driven by Unified Payments Interface (UPI), mobile payments and cards, according to Worldline India’s Digital Payments Report 2H 2024.
This was possible due to the robust growth in digital payments infrastructure. The UPI QR (Quick Response) codes through which users conduct their digital transactions using their mobile phones touched 63.34 crore at the end of December 2024, while PoS terminals increased by 23 per cent to 10 million during this period, the report states.
UPI saw strong growth in both person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) payments. P2P transactions increased by 30 per cent, rising from 27.04 billion in the second half of 2023 to 35.21 billion in the same period of 2024. The total value of these transactions also grew 26 per cent, reaching Rs 93.84 lakh crore.
P2M transactions grew even faster, with volume rising by 50 per cent to 58.03 billion and the total value increasing by 43 per cent to Rs 36.35 lakh crore. Card payments in the second half of 2024 grew by 11 per cent to 4.1 billion transactions, mainly driven by a 36 per cent jump in credit card usage, which reached 2.42 billion transactions.
However, debit card transactions dropped by 29 per cent to 0.82 billion, while prepaid card transactions rose by 11 per cent to 0.86 billion. The total value of card transactions increased by 8 per cent to Rs 13.64 lakh crore, with credit cards contributing Rs 10.76 lakh crore, a 14 per cent rise from the same period in 2023.
Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) saw robust growth, with 103.1 million tags issued by December 2024 — a 26 per cent increase from the previous year. Transaction volumes grew 9 per cent to 2.05 billion, while transaction value increased 12 per cent to Rs 35,637 crore.
India’s payment acceptance infrastructure expanded rapidly, with PoS terminals increasing 23 per cent to 10 million and UPI QR codes growing 126 per cent to 633.44 million. Private sector banks led PoS deployments with an 82.2 per cent market share.
