Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday urged stakeholders, including the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), to target achieving one billion Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions per day within the next 2–3 years, while also accelerating the platform’s internationalisation.
Currently, UPI handles an average of around 580 million transactions daily, according to NPCI data.
Sitharaman reviewed the UPI ecosystem in a meeting with senior officials from the finance ministry, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and NPCI. The discussions focused on enhancing the resilience, scalability, and real-time monitoring of the UPI infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted services and strengthen user trust.
“Nirmala Sitharaman underscored the need to target one billion UPI transactions per day within the next 2–3 years and also stressed on the importance of accelerating the internationalisation of UPI through the development of interoperable frameworks and expanding global payment acceptance,” the finance ministry said in a post on X.
The finance minister also emphasised the need to aggressively onboard more users and merchants to broaden UPI’s reach and impact. She urged stakeholders to collaboratively address infrastructure gaps, improve end-user experience, and bolster cybersecurity frameworks.
UPI has witnessed exponential growth in recent years. Between FY20 and FY25, UPI transactions grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 72%. In the last three years alone, about 260 million new users and 55 million new merchants have been onboarded. In FY25, UPI transaction values touched Rs 261 lakh crore, registering a year-on-year growth of 30%.