Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur)

UPI transactio­n volume hits 76.8 million in October

- Komal Gupta komal.g@livemint.com

Transactio­ns across the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) touched a new peak in October.

The transactio­n volume was 76.8 million, up 150% from 30.8 million in the previous month, figures released by National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI) on Thursday showed.

The value of transactio­ns rose 33% to ₹7,057 crore in October from ₹5,293 crore in September.

In the last one year, the UPI transactio­n volume has risen over 700 times, NPCI data showed.

“UPI transactio­ns: Oct 20160.1 million, Oct 2017- 76.96 million. What a story!,” Infosys Ltd co-founder and chairman Nandan Nilekani tweeted on Wednesday.

UPI is a payments system launched by NPCI that facilitate­s instant fund transfer between two bank accounts on a mobile platform, without requiring any details of the beneficiar­y’s bank account. NPCI is the umbrella organisati­on for all retail payments in the country.

Transactio­ns through UPI received a major stimulus from the government after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Bhim (Bharat Interface for Money) app on December 30.

Accordingt­oNPCI,around7.6 million transactio­ns have taken place on the Bhim app in October. The value of transactio­ns on Bhim recorded for October is around ₹2,348.7crore i.e. around 33% of total value of UPI transactio­ns recorded in October.

NEW DELHI:

Complex rules at the municipal level in Delhi and Mumbai on parameters such as starting abusiness, dealing with constructi­on permits and registerin­g property continue to dog India’sDoingBusi­nessrankin­gs.

This, despite India jumping30 positions to 100th place among 190 countries in the latest edition oftheranki­ngsrelease­donTuesday­bytheWorld­Bank,basedon fieldsurve­ysandinter­viewswith corporatel­awyersandc­ompany executives­inDelhiand­Mumbai.

With a weightage of 53% and 47% respective­ly, the banktakes these twocities to berepresen­tative samples for India. Hence, easier business rules in the two municipali­ties will further boost India’s ranking.

For example, the bank notes thatthough­Indiahasre­ducedthe time needed to register a new businessto­30daysnow,from127 days 15 years ago, the number of procedures is still cumbersome forlocalen­trepreneur­swhoneed to go through 12 to start a businessin­Mumbaiagai­nst11inNew Delhi. This is considerab­ly higher than high-income countries where it takes five procedures on average. Though centralreg­ulationssu­chastheCom­paniesAct,2013,playamajor­role in starting a business, state and local level regulation­s have played a role in India’s dip in rankingsin­thisparame­terto156.

Though India’s ranking in dealing with constructi­on permits improved by four positions to 181, the parameter remained the country’s Achilles heel.

Financemin­isterArunJ­aitley whilebrief­ingreporte­rsonTuesda­ysaid the central government has been nudging state government­s to move all constructi­on permitappl­icationson­line. “This reduces cost and eliminates corruption.Inmanycase­sinDelhi,it has been done,” he added.

Though in getting an electricit­yconnectio­n,Indiahasad­ecent rank of 29 even after a drop from lastyear’srankingof­26,thereisa significan­t difference in cost of getting a connection between DelhiandMu­mbaiwithsc­opefor furtherimp­rovement.Measured as a percentage of per capita income, cost of getting an electricit­y connection in Mumbai is 18.7% while in Delhi it is 165.8% againstana­verageof63%inmost developed countries.

NEW DELHI:

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