Unified Payments Interface(UPI) users across the country experienced transaction failures on Saturday as the popular payment system was down due to a technical glitch. This is the third time in less than a fortnight that UPI witnessed an outage that impacted transactions. In the recent past, UPI outage was reported on March 26 and April 2.
According to the outage tracking platform Downdetector, a platform that monitors service disruptions based on user reports, complaints about UPI failure began pouring in after 11.30 am.
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant payment system developed and managed by the National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI), an RBI-regulated entity.
NPCI acknowledged that users are facing partial transaction decline and it is working to resolve the issue. “NPCI is currently facing intermittent technical issues, leading to partial UPI transaction declines. We are working to resolve the issue and will keep you updated. We regret the inconvenience,” NPCI said in a social media post.
The Unified Payments Interface is built over the IMPS infrastructure and allows you to instantly transfer money between two bank accounts. The payment interface provides a transfer facility without any user charge. Users can transfer any amount of money at any time without incurring additional fees from NPCI.
It is also widely used for small payments at local shops, as there is no minimum transaction limit. Additionally, UPI offers a convenient AutoPay feature, which allows users to set up recurring payments for bills and subscriptions, making transactions seamless and hassle-free.
Transactions through UPI touched a record high of Rs 24.77 lakh crore in March, recording a growth of 12.7 per cent over the preceding month.
The Unified Payments Interface transaction value was Rs 21.96 lakh crore in February.
The service disruptions come even as UPI payments are becoming more and more ubiquitous. The Finance Ministry said UPI transactions in January surpassed 16.99 billion, with a total value exceeding Rs 23.48 lakh crore, a record high for any month.
It also highlighted UPI's critical role in India's digital payment ecosystem. “Unified Payments Interface remains the cornerstone of India’s digital payment ecosystem, contributing to 80 per cent of the retail payments across the country,” the Finance Ministry said.
