New Delhi: The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) reported a disruption to services on Saturday, with thousands of users unable to complete payments and fund transfers.
According to Downdetector, complaints regarding UPI services surged to over 2,000 as of noon, with payments and fund transfers being the most reported problems.
This comes days after India’s most widely used digital payment system experienced two major outages within a week, disrupting transactions and frustrating users nationwide.
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) issued a statement on X. “NPCI is currently facing intermittent technical issues, leading to partial UPI transaction declines. We are working to resolve the issue, and will keep you updated,” a post read.
On March 26, UPI users across the country faced difficulties executing transactions due to what NPCI described as an “intermittent technical issue”. NPCI, which operates the UPI network, acknowledged the issue and stated that the system has since been restored. On April 2, Downdetector showed hundreds of outage reports, with about half of them related to fund transfers, while 44 percent involved payment failures.
The disruption has affected major payment platforms, including Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm, as well as some banking applications. Downdetector shows reports against SBI and Google Pay as well.
The outage in the UPI services left many users stranded at cash counters, struggling to complete transactions.
According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), UPI accounted for 83% of total payment volumes by the end of 2024, up from 34% at the end of 2019. Over the same period, the share of other payment modes such as RTGS, NEFT, IMPS, credit cards and debit cards dropped from 66% to 17%.
