Only 4% of payments in India are digital

At present, digital payments only account for 4% of all transactions in India, compared to 96% of standard retail payments. Nevertheless, Indian Government officials and businesses are determined to see a reduced role for cash and believe that the drive towards digital payments, part of the 'Digital India' campaign, is gaining momentum.

Riding on the back of the state-owned Bharat Bill Payments System (BBPS), ItzCash, the largest player in the digital payments space, has crossed the Rs 50,000 crore worth of cumulative gross payment v

Riding on the back of the state-owned Bharat Bill Payments System (BBPS), ItzCash, the largest player in the digital payments space, has crossed the Rs 50,000 crore worth of cumulative gross payment volume for all bill payments done by the company between 2006 to 2016.

Today, the cashless or digital sector represents a mere four per cent while the total retail payment transactions are at 96 per cent. Value-wise the total digital payment is $32 billion and the cash transaction is currently $2.2 trillion and is expected to grow to $8 trillion in five years. There are around 70 payment systems operators authorised by the Reserve Bank of India

Mr Naveen Surya, chairman, Payment Council of India and managing director of ItzCash, said: “While the 'Digital India' campaign provided a broader vision, the BBPS, and the UPI initiatives have brought in a fresh momentum to the entire agenda for less cash transactions in India.”

BBPS is a very ambitious platform and is capable of playing the game changer by interconnecting existing networks and being the one-stop-shop for all the bill generators thereby building a more concrete online payment infrastructure.

The BBPS initially focused on the utility bills segment and Itzcash got0 50 per cent or Rs 6,000 crore of its revenue for 2015-16 from this segment.

This represents a lion's share in utility bill payments in the country with most of the utility bill players like Reliance Energy, BSES, MCD, Manipur State Electricity, Assam State Electricity etc., having 15-20 per cent market share of their digital bill payment collection.