Digital Payments increase by a whopping 55 % in 2016-17

Ever since the Indian Government announced the demonetization policy, the digital mode of transaction has got an impetus and today Ratan P Watal, Principal Advisor, NITI Aayog and Former Finance Secretary said that Digital payments recorded 55 percent increase in 2016-17 and the trend is likely to continue in the coming years.

At an event organized by industry body Ficci, Watal said that "these figures are truly reflective of the fact that India today stands at the cusp of a digital payments revolution through rapid penetration of digital payments infrastructure across the length and breadth of the country.

Due to innovations in digital payment technologies and increasing consumer satisfaction, the growth trends in digital payments are positive and will continue to dominate the payments landscape in India,this dispels the doubts raised by some commentators regarding the growth of Digital Payments, subsequent to demonetization," he added.

According to Watal who also heads the Committee on Digital Payments, believes that the growth in digital payments is very critical in the light of the fact that the government has set a target of 25 billion transactions to be achieved by March 2018.

In contrast, the outstanding stock of currency in circulation, which hovered around 12 percent of GDP during 2011-12 to 2015-16, declined to 8.8 percent during 2016-17, reflecting the impact ofdemonetization partially offset by the ongoing re-monetisation process," he pointed out.

Last year in November, Government of India had demonetised high-value currency (Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes) which actually gave the major push to digital payments in the country.