With over 22 billion transactions in Financial Year 2020-21, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has emerged as favourite digital payment choice in India, the government said on Tuesday (21 December).

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad said that as a result of the initiatives taken by the Government, there has been a paradigm shift in digital transactions in India.

The minster stated that the paradigm shift is reflected in terms of the increase in the volume of digital transactions over the last three financial years.

The volume of digital transactions in FY19 was 2,32,602 lakh, which increased to 3,40,025 lakh in FY20 and 4,37,445 lakh in FY21, the minister informed.

There has been a growth of 88 per cent in volume of digital transactions during the last 3 years since 2018-19, the minister said.

The minister further stated that as per the data sourced from National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), India’s own payment platform, UPI has emerged as the country’s favourite digital payment choice, with over 22 billion transactions registered during FY 2020-21, showing four times growth over the last 3 years.

Also, AePS(Aadhaar Enabled Payment System) inter-bank transactions during FY 2020-21 registered a nine-fold growth, over the past four years, he said