The digital payments in India will grow to Rs. 7,092 lakh crores by 2025 against Rs. 2,162 lakh crores in 2019-2020

COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst for the digital payments in India which may rise three times in the next five years, a research report has suggested. The research report of RedSeer Consulting published by Hindustan Times has suggested that the digital payments in India will grow to Rs. 7,092 lakh crores by 2025 against Rs. 2,162 lakh crores in 2019-2020 period.

The report released by the Bengaluru-based company said, “The current 160 million unique mobile payment users will multiply by 5 times to reach nearly 800 million by 2025. This growth will be driven by a number of demand and supply-side drivers”.

Amid this, the Coronavirus has acted like another demonetization and has resulted in an increase in digital payments.

According to the Hindustan Times report, RedSeer Consulting Founder and CEO Anil Kumar said, “Covid-19 seems like another demonetisation-like catalyst for the industry. Digital payment providers have been quite hands-on in responding to this situation, by offering enhanced support on essentials such as offering groceries, masks, sanitisers, Covid-19 insurance, offering integration with donations to the PM fund and other essential products and services”.

According to the report carried by HT, around 3.5 per cent of the total Rs. 7,092 lakh crores will come from mobile payments; this is more than thrice the current level. The report said that in 2025, India will have 800 million people paying from their mobile phones in comparison to 162 million in 2020. Mobile wallets will continue to do their job and will play a major role in this growth, it said. The report also said that the wallets are expected to have a higher penetration and lower-income would eventually drive multiple small-ticket transactions.

The report also gave credit to the government policies and said that the growth will happen on account of government’s policies around financial inclusion and growing digitisation of merchants.