Digital payments up nearly 23 times since demonetisation: Government

New Delhi, April 13 (IANS) There has been nearly 23-fold increase in the number of digital payments since the November 8 demonetisation, the government said on Thursday.

The transactions using various digital payment modes went up to 63.80 lakh with a total transaction value of Rs 2,425 crore till March this year, as against 2,80,000 transactions and Rs 101 crore till November 2016, a NITI Aayog statement said.

The number of Aadhaar-enabled payments also increased from 2.5 crore in November 2016 to over five crore in March 2017.

"BHIM App has already created a new world record by registering 1.9 crore downloads in just four months since its launch in December," it said.

Following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, 2016, the government had launched DigiDhan Melas led by the National Institution for Transforming India Aayog in 100 cities to promote digital payments.

"At least 15,000 institutions have gone cashless across these 100 cities in 27 states and seven Union Territories.

"With a turnout of over 15 lakh from cities, small towns and villages, the melas have enabled lakhs to open new bank accounts as well as create new Aadhaar cards," the statement said.

Modi had in December 2016 launched BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) app, an Aadhaar-based mobile payment application to promote and make digital transactions easier.