Debit and credit cards have shown steady growth in the Indian economy as the average monthly volume and value of transactions have doubled since demonetisation. According to the Reserve Bank of India data, the average monthly value was Rs. 78,798 crore in May, 2018 compared to Rs. 76,541 crore in the first three months after demonetisation.
Card payments have shown tremendous growth even when the real time United Payments Interface (UPI) is increasing its share in cashless payments. The average number of point-of- sale terminals have almost doubled after demonetisation from 13.9 lakh in October, 2016 to 29.4 lakh in May, 2018 but the average number of transactions per machine has remained unchanged. This clearly shows that cards are used only to make small payments.
Yes, usage of cards is growing particularly because of increase in mobile linked point of sale terminals provided by Mswipe and Ezetap. They have find users everywhere from a small vendor to online retailers like Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra, etc. The usage of e-wallet is also growing which is a way forward to cashless economy. Many payment applications like Paytm, Airtel, Ola, etc. have provided e- wallet facility for easy access to payments.
They also allow automatic settlement, reconciliation and online tracking of transaction history. All these services help firms maximize their revenue from each merchant. Well, one positive aspect of demonetisation which can be counted is that it has led to increase in the number of cashless transactions and more people opening their bank accounts. For developing country like India, it was very important to be cashless so that the Government actually know how much currency is in circulation despite the increase in tax revenue.
Comments