Note ban has RuPay card usage at PoSes surging 7 times: NPCI

Demonetisation has boosted the digital platforms for payment, which has helped National Payments Corporation's RuPay card usage at merchant terminals soar seven times since November 8, taking the daily volumes to over 2.1 million. The RBI-administered retail umbrella body for all retail payment is targeting a daily volume of 5 million transactions through RuPay cards by next December.

"Usage of RuPay cards at point of sale (PoSes) and for e-commerce together that used to be about 3 lakh per day (before the demonetisation), is now about 2.1 million, which is a seven-times jump," NPCI managing director and chief executive AP Hota said. So far, the Corporation has issued 317 million RuPay cards, which include 205 million of cards to the Jandhan account-holders.

On Nov 8, the government demonetised high value worth over Rs 20.51 trillion notes, or 86% of the currency in circulation. This was followed with curbs on cash withdrawals both from the branch counters and ATMs. This led to a cash crunch as the RBI could not print enough notes for distribution and replenish the money equivalent to the scrapped amount.