RBI Releases Provisional Data On Electronic Payments In November

A total of 66.4 crore transactions worth Rs 93.99 lakh crore took place on select electronic payment systems during November, the Reserve Bank of India said in a media statement issued on Friday.

The data, according to the central bank, is taken from a sample of the industry and is therefore not comparable with previous months.

Electronic payment systems have gained importance after the central government on November 8 announced the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. The process of replacing around 86 percent of the currency that was in circulation has resulted in a cash crunch.

A total of 79 lakh transactions worth Rs 78.48 lakh crore took place on India’s real time gross settlement system or RTGS.

During the month, the volume of transactions on the National Electronic Funds Transfer system or NEFT was 12.3 crore. These were worth Rs 8.81 lakh crore.

A total of 8.7 crore cheques worth Rs 5.42 lakh crore were cleared during November, on the country’s cheque clearing system, the data showed.

The RBI said that debit and credit card transactions of four banks at point of sale terminals during November stood at 19.8 crore, and were worth Rs 34,210 crore.

Also, transactions worth around Rs 1,320 crore were conducted with prepaid payment instruments issued by eight non-banks. These transactions, the RBI said, were only for goods and services. Prepaid payment instruments include mobile wallets, prepaid cards, and paper vouchers.

Only 3 crore transactions, worth Rs 90 crore took place on the National Payment Corporation of India’s Unified Payment Interface in November.