New Delhi, Aug 28 : Digital payments to merchants in India rose 19.6 per cent year-on-year to Rs 11.73 lakh crore in July 2026, driven by strong growth in UPI-based transactions and credit card spending, a report said on Friday.

Merchant payments increased from Rs 9.80 lakh crore in July last year and were also up 5 per cent month-on-month from Rs 11.17 lakh crore in June 2026, according to data compiled by Equirus Securities.

UPI-P2M and credit cards remained the key drivers of the digital payments ecosystem, with their spending rising 23.5 per cent and 7.4 per cent, respectively, on a year-on-year basis.

UPI-P2M transactions stood at Rs 9.066 lakh crore in July, accounting for 77.3 per cent of total digital merchant payments.

Its share increased by 22 basis points from June and 243 basis points from the year-ago period, the report said.

Credit card spending stood at Rs 2.081 lakh crore during the month, rising 3.4 per cent from June and accounting for 17.7 per cent of total digital merchant payments. Debit card spending, meanwhile, declined 0.8 per cent year-on-year, although it increased 7.4 per cent month-on-month to Rs 37,700 crore.

Prepaid card transactions stood at around Rs 6,600 crore, while wallet spending was approximately Rs 13,700 crore. Together, prepaid cards and wallets accounted for Rs 20,300 crore of spending in July, registering a strong 41.1 per cent year-on-year growth and 4.3 per cent month-on-month increase.

The credit card market also continued to expand, with the number of cards in force rising by 1.267 million from the previous month to 122.9 million in July.

E-commerce continued to dominate credit card usage, accounting for 63.6 per cent of total credit card spending in July, compared with 63.1 per cent in June. Average monthly e-commerce spending per credit card stood at Rs 10,772, while average point-of-sale spending was Rs 6,165.

The average size of an e-commerce transaction was around Rs 4,301, compared with Rs 2,579 for point-of-sale transactions. Average monthly transactions per credit card also increased to 4.90 in July from 4.75 in June.

/IANS