Indians have lost Rs 485 crore in fraud of Unified Payment System (UPI) from the beginning of this financial year to September 2024. A total of 6.32 lakh cases of fraud were registered during this period. This information has been given by the Finance Ministry.
Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Choudhary said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that frauds through the use of UPI have increased by 85% to Rs 1,087 crore in FY24 from Rs 573 crore in FY23. The number of payment fraud incidents has also almost doubled from 7.25 lakh in FY23 to 13.4 lakh in FY24.
According to Pankaj Chaudhary, UPI frauds worth Rs 485 crore were reported in the first half of the current financial year, of which 6.32 lakh incidents have been recorded so far.
According to the data provided by the minister, UPI payments worth Rs 122.05 lakh crore were recorded in the first half of FY 2025, while UPI payments worth Rs 199.96 lakh crore were made in the previous financial year.
This surge in fraud has come at a time when the Reserve Bank of India and the government have jointly tried to increase its use to make transactions easier for business and retail. In the recent meeting of the Monetary Committee (MPC), RBI had increased the wallet limit from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000.
According to a statement released by PIB in September, UPI now offers live transactions in seven countries, including major countries like UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France and Mauritius. UPI has become the most preferred method of real-time payment for millions of users across the country.
The value of UPI transactions has grown from Rs 1 lakh crore to Rs 200 lakh crore at a compound annual growth rate of 138%. The PIB statement said that the contribution of person-to-merchant transactions reached 62.40% in August 2024, where 85% of the transactions are up to Rs 500 in value.
