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The month of December in 2021 saw nearly 4.56 billion transactions, worth Rs 8.27 lakh-crore, on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) developed by retail payments body, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), nearly double last year’s 2.23 billion transactions worth Rs 4.16 lakh-crore.

On an annual basis, 2021 witnessed 105.2 percent volume growth, at 38.74 billion, compared to 2020’s 18.88 billion. In terms of value of UPI transactions, the year gone by has registered an annual growth of 111.3 percent, from Rs 33.88 lakh-crore in 2020 to Rs 71.59 lakh-crore in 2021.

In comparison to 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the year 2021 registered an annual growth of 259.1 percent in volume of 10.79 billion transactions, and 289.8 percent growth in value from Rs 18.37 lakh-crore.

In the 62 months since the demonetisation, in Nov. 2016, UPI has seen a total transaction value of over Rs 130 lakh-crore, while the cumulative number of transactions added to 73.58 billion, until Dec. 2021.

Interestingly, during the 22 months of the pandemic, from March 2020 to Dec. 2021, UPI clocked a cumulative volume of close to 56 billion — 76.1 percent of the volume registered since demonetisation. Similarly, at Rs 101.08 lakh-crore, the value of transaction during the pandemic months account for 77.6 percent of the total transaction value clocked since Nov. 2016.

The total value of transactions on UPI, in Dec. 2021 marked a 7.6 percent month-on-month increase in transaction value over November 2021.

During 2021, payments on UPI saw a surge during the month of October, attributed to increased festive spending by users. The transaction value during the month was reported to be Rs 7.71 lakh-crore and the number of transactions crossed the 4 billion mark.

Nearly 20 third-party apps provide UPI transactions services. These players have till Dec. 2023 to cap their market share for UPI transactions to less than 30 percent by volume, according to a Standard Operating Procedure released by NPCI in March 2021.

The transaction volume and value over the UPI instrument is only set to increase with the introduction of the UPI-autopay feature, which allows subscription transactions of less than Rs 5,000.