Cashless Kol trips on UPI payment as glitch hits apps
Times of India | 13 April 2025
Kolkata: Electronic payment has become so intrinsic to our daily lives that the glitch in unified payments interface (UPI) services on Saturday stumped the "cashless" crowd in the city, as they scrambled for cash at markets, fuel stations, restaurants, shops and even at the roadside vegetable carts. Some even had to either return home empty-handed or go back home for their wallets. Some had to head back home and return to markets with cash.
A number of UPI apps, such as GPay, PhonePe and Paytm, did not work at different points of the day across Kolkata—from Salt Lake and New Town to Phoolbagan, Lake Gardens and Garia. Konkona Sen, a resident of Salt Lake, said, "These days, we depend so much on digital payment that we don't carry much cash. I was unaware of the UPI glitch. It was only at the market that I realised GPay was not working. I had to return home and take some cash with me to buy my daily essentials."
But not all faced problems in sending money online.
In the afternoon, the National Payments Corporation of India, the entity responsible for the operation of the UPI network, clarified on X that intermittent technical issues caused "partial UPI transaction declines" across the country.
Sudeshna Roy from Santoshpur was in a fix when she had to pay her cab driver on reaching her workplace at Sector V around 12.15 pm. "I tried thrice, but the payment failed. I had to borrow cash from a colleague to pay the cab fare," Roy said. "Initially, I thought my mobile internet was down but later, I found out about the UPI outage."
Saikat Pramanik, a resident of Garia, could not fill petrol in his car as a petrol pump near Tollygunge warned him that UPI was not working. "I will have to fill petrol tomorrow as the digital payment failed," he said.
Paying bills at restaurants, cafes and bars posed a challenge. Ahwan Dutta, a techie who went to a popular resto-bar on Park Street with some friends, said, "We came across a friend's online post on the UPI glitch. Had we not had cash among us, we could not have paid the bills."
Business transactions were also affected in the city's trading hubs. C K Vardarajan, a businessman and a resident of Prince Anwar Shah Road, said, "I encountered payment issues while using UPI and could not proceed with transactions. Initially, I thought it was only me, but soon realised, many others were also facing the same problem."