Credit and finance for MSMEs: The peer-to-merchant (P2M) UPI transactions saw 119 per cent growth in February 2023 to 415.32 crore from 189.58 crores in February 2022, showed the latest UPI data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The value of transactions also increased by 71.1 per cent from Rs 1.63 lakh crore in February 2022 to Rs 2.79 lakh crore in February 2023.
Read More: 6 Tax-Saving Options Women Must Know About
P2M transactions had a 55.12 per cent share in total UPI volume of 753.4 crore transactions in February compared to 338.1 crore peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions with a 44.8 per cent share. However, P2M transactions by value were limited to 22.5 per cent share only compared to 77.4 per cent share of P2P transactions in the overall transaction value of Rs 12.35 lakh crore in February.
In a month-on-month comparison, January saw 441 crore P2M transactions amounting to Rs 3 lakh crore. P2M transactions had a 54.8 per cent share in total UPI volume of 803.6 crore transactions in January while peer-to-peer (P2P) had a 45.1 per cent share with the remaining 362.5 crore transactions. In terms of value, P2M transactions had a 23.1 per cent share vis-a-vis 76.8 per cent share of P2P transactions in the total UPI transaction value of Rs 12.98 lakh crore in January.
Read More: RBI Likely To Settle For 25 Basis Points Repo Rate Hike: Experts
To address the growing need for instant credit for merchants, the government is looking to introduce a merchant credit card (MCC) for those in the MSME category in 2023, FE had reported in January this year. The credit card will cater to the short-term liquidity requirements of traders and is designed similar to the Kisan Credit Card. Meanwhile, February 2023’s total UPI volume of 753.4 crore transactions had declined from 803.6 crore in January 2023 — the first time after declining to 586.2 crore in June 2022 from 595.5 crore in May 2022. The value of UPI transactions also dropped to Rs 12.35 lakh crore in February 2023 from Rs 12.98 lakh crore in January 2023.