DRAMATIC DROP IN POS UNIT COUNT

There has been a substantial fall in the installation of point-of-sale (POS) machines in India. By Q1 2021, the POS terminal count came down to 4.72 million in March 2021, from an all-time high of 6.03 million in January 2021. According to the Worldline India Digital Payments Report for Q1 2021, the new number likely reflects a more realistic number of the terminals deployed.

Industry sources said one reason for the fall is a growing realisation that in-store shopping could take some time to return in a big way owing to the pandemic. And e-commerce sites are the preferred route. Private-sector banks account for about 67 per cent of the deployed terminals, and state-run banks have a 27 per cent share, with payments banks at 5 five per cent and and foreign banks at 1 per cent.