Deadline extended by 2 years for 30% cap on UPI transactions by third-party payments firms

The timelines for compliance of existing Third Party App Providers who are exceeding the proposed volume cap, is extended by two years till December 31, 2024, the National Payments Corporation of India has said in a statement.

Why was the deadline extended?

The decision was taken after taking into account the present usage and future potential of UPI, and other relevant factors around it.

"In view of the significant potential of digital payments and the need for multi-fold penetration from its current state, it is imperative that other existing and new players (Banks and Non-Banks) shall scale up their consumer outreach for the growth of UPI and achieve overall market equilibrium," the statement, undersigned by Chief Operating Officer Praveena Rai, said on December 2.

Notably, the Corporation on November 5, 2020, said the existing service providers, who are exceeding the 30 per cent cap will have a period of two years to comply with the same in a phased manner. The service providers shall ensure that the total volume of transactions initiated shall not exceed 30 per cent of the overall volume of transactions processed in UPI during the preceding three months At present, the UPI market is dominated by players like Google Pay and PhonePe. To avoid such concentration in the UPI market, the NPCI in 2020 came up with a directive to cap the share of transactions.