'There is a debit execution failure which is because there is not enough money in the user's bank account.'
More than 20 million AutoPay mandates on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) are revoked each month as users' accounts fall short of the required balances, according to sources.
UPI AutoPay enables users to generate a recurring e-mandate using any UPI payments application. It allows users to set timely mandates to pay on a periodic basis.
Mandate registration refers to the creation of a recurring mandate against a customer's bank account.
Execution refers to the transaction wherein the recurring debit is done on the remitting account, as per National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Cancellations occurred on recurring payments use cases such as entertainment or over-the-top (OTT) subscriptions, loan repayments, investments and utilities, among other automated payment scenarios.
"The revocations stand at 20 million every month...There is a debit execution failure which is because there is not enough money in the user's bank account. There are many cases of micro investment mandates, like for an SIP or loan repayments," a source with knowledge of the matter said.
"The creation of an AutoPay mandate is generated during the loan disbursement journey, where registrations are successful. However, the execution fails due to insufficient funds in the user's bank account where the mandate was created," a second payments executive said.
An analysis of the payment error codes may further hint towards the major reasons for transaction declines, the person added.
UPI is clearly being used for loan repayments or credit card due payments as debt collection agencies recorded over 151 million UPI transactions worth Rs 77,000 crore (Rs 770 billion) in August alone.
But mandates have not slowed on a year-on-year basis.
Remitter banks recorded over 50 million new AutoPay mandate registrations in July 2025, nearly double from 26 million registrations in July 2024, according to NPCI data.
While mandate execution more than doubled to 808 million during the month, against 392 million recorded in July 2024.
However, data also showed that, on average, business declines (BD) across the top 50 banks for such transactions stood at nearly 74 per cent on average reflecting rejections due to business reasons such as insufficient funds or other non-technical factors.
While the transaction limit for most merchant categories is capped at Rs 15,000, segments such as securities brokers, dealers, and insurance have a higher cap of Rs 1 lakh, given the larger transaction values involved.
UPI AutoPay has become a conduit for companies to acquire and retain customers consistently.
However, users may also choose to delete or pause the mandate to avoid paying for the service.
"Users get a notification from the merchant or the payments app before a mandate is executed and money is debited," a third payments executive at a top UPI company said, requesting anonymity.
"Users can cancel the mandates from the app they created it in, which may also get counted as a revoked payment."
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
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