Budget 2023: Significant Enhancement In Digital Payments Made Indian Economy More Formalised, FM Nirmala Sitharaman Says

The Economic Survey tabled on Tuesday noted that UPI-based transactions grew 121 per cent in value and 115 per cent in volume.

Budget 2023 highlighted the benefits of UPI.

Source : Sansad TV

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2023-24 in Parliament today. She highlighted the boons of digital payments in the country and how a notable enhancement in the sector has helped the national economy become more formalised. 

"The Indian economy has become more formalised as witnessed by a significant enhancement in digital payments," the Finance Minister said as she presented the budget.

The Indian economy has become more formalised as witnessed by a significant enhancement in digital payments: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pic.twitter.com/hYIGVg4hi5

— ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2023

This comes under the backdrop of the Economic Survey (2022-23), tabled on Tuesday, which noted that  Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has seen a great boost in recent years, registering a growth in value as well as volume, in turn leading to global adoption.

The survey noted that between 2019 and 2022, UPI-based transactions grew 121 per cent in value and 115 per cent in volume. Developed by the National Payments Corportation of India (NPCI), the instant real-time payment service was first introduced by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan on April 11, 2016. 

In terms of digital public goods, the Survey noted that several government schemes have transformed the country’s marketplace, enabling citizens to access services across multiple sectors. These schemes include the likes of MyScheme, TrEDS, GEM, e-NAM, and UMANG.

The Survey went on to note that the consent-based data sharing framework — Account Aggregator — is presently live across over 110 crore bank accounts. Additionally, the Open Credit Enablement Network looks to democratise lending operations while allowing end-to-end digital loan applications. 

The Survey also noted that legislations are being introduced to ensure better user privacy, creating an ecosystem for standard, open, and interoperable protocols underlining robust data governance. 

Furthermore, as per the Economic Survey, the total telephone subscriber base in India stands at 117.8 crore, as of September 2022. Out of this, 44.3 per cent subscribers are based out of rural India. 

As of March 2022, the overall teledensity stood at 84.8 per cent. 

Between 2015 and 2021, the Survey noted that Internet subscriptions in rural areas saw a whopping 200 per cent increase.