Nepal carried out electronic transactions worth over Rs 98.43 trillion in the last fiscal year (FY), which was 71 percent more than the amount recorded in the previous FY.
The records with Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) show that digital transactions have been soaring heavily in the past few years. In FY 2023/24, the amount was recorded at Rs 57.47 trillion. Considering the figure of Rs 34.42 trillion in FY 2020/21, the amount grew almost three-fold in the past five years.
According to the NRB officials, people have been switching to digital transactions from cash-based systems mainly due to an ease in trading mode along with safety concerns. In the FY 2024/25, people used the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) platform to carry out transactions of Rs 74.9 trillion.
Similarly, the electronic check clearing (ECC) system witnessed transactions of over Rs 6.2 trillion while payments of Rs 5.2 trillion were settled through faster payment systems.
According to the NRB, more than Rs 5 trillion was settled via mobile banking, Rs 2.9 trillion through Connect IPS, Rs 2.9 trillion through debit cards and over Rs 1 trillion was settled through ATMs. Likewise, QR-based payments witnessed financial transactions of Rs 956 billion, while payments through e-commerce systems were recorded at Rs 266 billion.
Meanwhile, large chunks of payments were settled mainly in the last month (between mid-June and mid-July) and first month (between mid-July and mid-August) of every fiscal year. In the first month of FY 2024/25, digital transactions were recorded at Rs 126 billion, while the figure was Rs 119 billion in the last month.
