Impact of UPI Payments on Plastic Money

Impact of UPI Payments on Plastic Money

Praveen Singh

Galgotias University

INTRODUCTION

In today's world, everything is becoming digitalized, and one of the best examples is how numerous countries around the world are advancing toward becoming cashless economies. A cashless economy does not use the currency for any of its transactions and instead conducts all of them digitally. Various countries across the world do more than half of their transactions using cashless technologies.

People are particularly concerned about technology. The Indian government has taken many steps to actively promote digital payments in the country. The government's "Digital India" initiative aspires to build a "digitally empowered" economy that is "Faceless, Paperless, and Cashless." Digital payments come in a variety of forms and mechanisms. The usage of debit/credit cards, online banking, mobile wallets, digital payment applications, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) service, and Unstructured Supplementary Service are just a few examples. Digital payment options are comparatively easy to use, more convenient, and allow customers to make purchases from anywhere and at any time. These are a suitable alternative to standard payment methods and have faster transaction times.

Debit and credit cards have brought benefits to people who have struggled to withdraw cash from banks and ATMs since demonetization. Although plastic money has been available for decades, India's acceptance rate remains low.

In March 2016, India has 24.51 million credit cards and 661.8 million debit cards, according to RBI figures. However, only 72.22 million and 112.87 million transactions were completed in March 2015 and March 2016, respectively. Without a doubt, these figures would have risen as a result of demonetization. However, for people who remain dubious about plastic money and are uninterested in using checks or demand draughts, there are a few additional choicesused from their telephones.