UPI transaction spurts 105% in Diwali: SBI study

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Diwali is one of the most popular and celebrated festivals in India. No wonder people generally spent a lot during this festival. A recent report by SBI says, during Diwali month, i.e. October the total transaction through credit card and debit card was low but online or UPI transaction jumped 105% this year.

Over last year

The study based on the recent data of RBI and NPCI revealed that during Diwali month, i.e. October payment through UPI witnessed a jump more than 100% compared to 2020.

The transaction value jumped nearly 105% over the same period of last year.

The study found that during October credit card and debit card transaction value stood at Rs 13,300 crore and Rs 9,700 crore, which were Rs 13,500 crore and Rs 13,800 crore last year.

But this year UPI payment rose to Rs 1.17 lakh crore, up by almost 105% from Rs 57,100 crore in 2020.

Debit card in the back seat

Indian consumers have now migrated big time to technology platforms such as UPI that do not require the intervention of a POS machine and factor authentications, read the report, complied by Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economist advisor of the bank.

The report showed that UPI transactions have jumped almost 70 times in the past four years. On the other hand, debit card transactions have commensurately stagnated which was an indication people’s preference.

Cash was almost static

Latest currency in circulation data reveals that it has remained constant over the previous year even as record purchases happened during Diwali at Rs. 1.25 lakh crore, according to the CAIT data. This happened for the first time since 2014.

According to the SBI study, the total amount of cash in circulation in the Diwali week, stood almost Rs 44,000 crore, which was Rs 43,800 crore in 2020.

In the last 10 years, the cash in circulation was the maximum in the Diwali of 2018. The amount was Rs 49,500 crore. The lowest was in 2016, Rs 18,500 crore, said the SBI report.