Payments made through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) touched Rs 12.98 lakh crore in value in January, at par with December 2022, according to data by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Transactions worth Rs 12.82 lakh crore were recorded in December last year. A total of 385 banks were live on UPI in January, up from 382 in the previous month.

A total of 803.68 crore UPI transactions were made last month, up from 782.94 crore in December 2022, signalling a record number of transactions for the digital payment network.

However, month-on-month growth in the value of transactions slowed to 1.3% in January as compared to December 2022. The value grew more than 7.6% between November and December last year.

The number of UPI transactions grew 74% from 461 crore in January 2022, while transaction value rose 52% from Rs 8.31 lakh crore in January last year.

The Economic Survey 2022-23 released last week showed that of the total 8,840 crore digital financial transactions in India—with a total value of Rs 126 lakh crore—around 52% were made via Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in FY22.

The Union government also lowered the allocation meant for compensating fintech startups and banks that facilitate free UPI transactions, disappointing industry stakeholders who had been demanding a significant increase from last year’s outlay.