The massive adoption of unified payments interface (UPI) based digital transactions had put India in the global spotlight. However cash payments and transactions are seemingly making comeback in the shops of Bengaluru.

As per a report in the Economic Times, small shopkeepers and street vendors in Bengaluru are removing QR codes. The shop fronts instead are replaced by hand-written signs “No UPI, only cash,” ET has reported.

The return to cash is due to “risks” associated with UPI payments, said ET, adding that several of these vendors have recently received Goods and Services Tax (GST) notices.  These tax notices are reportedly lakhs of rupees.

The GST notices were even sent to several vendors who are not even registered under GST, added ET.

GST rules mandates that shops and businesses have to resister under GST if their annual sales cross Rs 40 lakh, while for service businesses, the limit is Rs 20 lakh. The ET report, citing Karnataka commercial taxes department said, GST notices were sent to businesses whose UPI records from 2021-22 showed higher sales than the legal permissible limits. These businesses must register and pay GST, ET quoting the department wrote. 

Meanwhile an International Monetary Fund (IMF) note has emphasized that India now makes faster payments than any other country in the world.

UPI is an instant payments platform built over the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) infrastructure. Since its launch in 2016, UPI has grown quickly, while some proxies for cash usage have begun to decline. UPI now processes more than 18 billion transactions per month and dominates other electronic retail payments in India, according to the note titled ‘Growing Retail Digital Payments: The Value of Interoperability.’

UPI volumes in June grew 32 per cent year-on-year. Transaction value rose 20 per cent compared to June last year. The number of daily UPI transactions rose to 613 million in June from 602 million in May.