The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) experienced disruptions for the third time in as many weeks, with numerous customers reporting payment failures across platforms like PhonePe, Google Pay, and Paytm.
Despite its widespread adoption, these frequent outages are causing frustration among users. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had announced on April 1st that UPI transaction volume reached a record high of 18.3 billion in March, a 13.5% year-on-year increase, with the value hitting a record Rs 24.77 trillion. In February, the volume stood at 16.11 billion.
According to Down Detector, a platform that monitors online services, complaints regarding UPI surged to over 2,000 by noon on Saturday, with payment and fund transfer failures being the most commonly reported issues.
Saturday’s disruption marks the third outage in as many weeks, significantly impacting transactions and inconveniencing users. A major outage occurred on March 26th, leaving users unable to access UPI functions for up to three hours. Another outage was reported on April 1st, which the NPCI attributed to a surge related to the fiscal year-end.
Earlier on Saturday, the NPCI posted a message on the X platform stating, "We are currently facing intermittent technical issues, leading to partial UPI transaction declines. We are working to resolve the issue and will keep you updated."
When contacted for comments regarding the recurring nature of these outages, the Corporation did not provide a specific reason for the repeated disruptions.
The current disruption is the latest in a series of issues affecting UPI services in recent weeks, hindering both individual and business transactions.
The outage extended to major financial institutions, including HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, among others.
This incident coincides with the changes announced by the NPCI on April 8th concerning international UPI transactions. These changes involve restrictions on using QR codes for cross-border payments to enhance payer identification accuracy. However, these amendments do not affect transaction limits for domestic UPI payments.
On April 9th, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to which the NPCI reports, increased the daily payment limit for business transactions to Rs 5 lakh per account, up from the previous Rs 2 lakh. However, the daily limit for individual accounts remains at Rs 1 lakh.
An analyst suggested that the recurring failures highlight potential vulnerabilities within the system, raising concerns about server overloads, planned maintenance, or cybersecurity threats. The uncertainty surrounding the cause of these outages also raises questions about the resilience of the digital payment infrastructure.
March witnessed a record Rs 24.77 trillion worth of UPI-based transactions, a 12.79% increase from the Rs 21.96 trillion recorded in February. NPCI data released on April 1st indicated that the UPI network processed an average of over 590 million transactions daily, totaling Rs 79,910 crore in daily transaction value.
On an annualized basis, the record-breaking UPI transactions in March amounted to Rs 24.77 trillion, representing a 25% surge in value and an impressive 36% growth in volume.