Digital transactions have become quite crucial in our economy, lately. It allows us to pay bills without the hassle of carrying a lot of cash. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is one of the best forms of digital payments. It was introduced in 2016, after which it became a popular source of the online transactions. UPI method is a way of transferring money from one bank to another by just typing a secret 4 or 6 digit pin. It is a step ahead than normal Net Banking or paying online through credit or debit cards because it reduces the effort of adding beneficiaries and entering the card details while transacting.
Considering the popularity of UPI method, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched UPI AutoPay facility to help us schedule all the recurring transactions like telephone bills, DTH payment, EMI’s, mutual funds instalments, LIC payment, OTT subscriptions, metro/rail tickets and other utility payments. This AutoPay feature has the capability to pay all the bills worth less than Rs 2000. The customer just needs to enable the mandate option for their respective UPI ID and from the following month, the system will pay all the bills automatically. For transactions above Rs 2000, UPI Pin will be required to validate the payment. Also, the mandate options will allow you to set the payments on a daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, yearly and half-yearly basis. Moreover, to check the Auto payment activities happening through your UPI, mandate option also provides access to a detailed payment log.
Having said that, the NPCI declared that Indian economy witnessed 1.34 billion UPI payments only in the month of June, which is expected to grow even more in the coming months due to the COVID-19 outbreak. UPI is possibly the fastest digital transaction facility to hit the 1 million mark in a month. The convenience of transacting from home, without going out to withdraw the cash, is the reason for the success of the UPI methodology. Therefore, it is expected that the AutoPay feature will further stimulate the growth of UPI in India. Also, many big brands like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, ISBC Bank, HSBC Bank, IDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Paytm, have already gone live with AutoPay ability. Now, with authorization from huge Corporations like these UPI 2.0 is definitely going to be a hit in the market.
