Paytm investors should look beyond UPI incentives blip
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Cabinet’s approval of ₹1,500 crore incentives for FY25 to promote low-value unified payments interface (UPI) transactions is certainly a disappointment for investors in One97 Communications Ltd stock—Paytm’s parent company. The stock has been in focus lately in anticipation of this development.
Under this scheme, the total incentives for the UPI industry stood at ₹3,268 crore for FY24, up by nearly 80% over the previous year.Consequently, the bar for FY25 was high. Currently, there is no confirmation of the company’s share in incentives and a concern is that it may decline drastically. Paytm earned ₹288 crore under the scheme for FY24, which was accounted for in Q4FY24.
This announcement usually comes during Q4 of the financial year. Also read | Centre approves ₹1,500 crore incentive for UPI transactions: What is it? Who will benefit? All you need to know As Paytm’s market share in volume and value of UPI payments has come down since January 2024 when the Reserve Bank of India took action against Paytm Payments Bank and the government cut overall allocation, there could be a fall of about ₹150 crore in the company’s income from UPI incentives for FY25. For perspective, the company has reported a loss of ₹772 crore at the adjusted Ebitda level (Ebitda before Esop) in 9MFY25.
While this development is sentimentally negative, investors should not focus solely on UPI incentives because Paytm is not looking at income from payment processing alone and exploring other revenue streams. The idea is to build relationships with merchants and UPI users to cross-sell other financial services. Paytm and others are hoping to monetize the database by offering loan distribution, insurance, stock
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