NEW DELHI: The UPI payments system, operated by the National Payments Corporation of India, is the world's largest retail fast-payment system by transaction volume, according to an IMF report.
UPI has anchored a digital revolution in India, helping bring large sections of the population into a formal economy and becoming a backbone of a digital economy in which electronic payments are increasingly integral to everyday commerce, according to an article in the South China Morning Post.
According to government data, annual transaction volume surged to 241.62 billion in the financial year that ended in March 2026 from 17.8 million in 2016-17, while transaction value zoomed from Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 3.14 lakh crore over the same period.
Now, a decade after the government launched the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India is asking some merchants to pay for the hugely popular system in order to ensure that the system is sustainable over the long run, as it costs banks to keep the service running. (IANS)
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