The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which powers India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), reported a robust 42% surge in standalone net profit to Rs 1,552 crore for the financial year ended March 2025, according to provisional data from credit rating agency ICRA. In the previous fiscal (FY24), NPCI had recorded a profit of Rs 1,095 crore.
The digital payments facilitator also clocked a 19% rise in standalone revenue, touching Rs 3,270 crore in FY25 compared to Rs 2,749 crore in FY24. These figures are provisional and await final audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. NPCI has not yet officially published its financial statements for FY25.
Key Pillar of India’s Digital Economy
Established under the Reserve Bank of India’s guidance, NPCI operates as a not-for-profit organisation and refers to profits as “surplus” in its financial disclosures. Owned by a consortium of Indian banks, NPCI is the backbone of the country’s retail digital payments, managing major systems including UPI, IMPS, AePS, NACH, and the domestic card network RuPay.
Despite being a not-for-profit entity, NPCI’s growing surplus underscores the increasing scale of digital transactions in India. The organisation has been under heightened scrutiny in recent months following several UPI outages that disrupted millions of transactions across the country.
UPI’s Growing Dominance
UPI remains India’s dominant mobile payment platform, accounting for over 85% of digital transactions. With daily transaction volumes ranging between 600 to 650 million, UPI is poised to surpass global leader Visa in terms of transaction volume, potentially becoming the world’s largest retail interbank payment settlement system.
In May 2025 alone, UPI facilitated over 18 billion transactions valued at more than Rs 25 lakh crore.
Fintech Monetisation Debate Continues
Even as NPCI reports strong financials, Indian fintech players continue to advocate for the introduction of a merchant discount rate (MDR) on UPI transactions to make their business models viable. However, the finance ministry earlier this month reiterated that UPI payments will remain MDR-free to boost digital adoption across India.
Fintech firms argue that MDR is crucial to sustaining infrastructure investments, especially as UPI expands into rural and underserved regions.
RuPay and NPCI Subsidiaries
NPCI’s card network, RuPay, continues to compete with global giants Visa and Mastercard, especially in the credit card segment. RuPay credit cards can be linked to UPI, accelerating adoption. While RuPay dominates the debit card market with an 80% share, many debit card transactions have shifted to UPI over the years.
NPCI also runs two subsidiaries:
NIPL (NPCI International Payments Limited) – focused on taking UPI and RuPay global.
NBBL (NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited) – central to digitising utility bill payments by connecting billers and customers through various platforms.
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