The Reserve Bank is aiming to increase daily CBDC transactions to 10 lakh from up to 10,000 by the end of the year, according to a report in on July 12. The central bank intends to accomplish this by utilising UPI QR codes.

The RBI had planned to test the e-rupee for retail transactions on December 1, 2022. As of June, approximately 13 lakh users had downloaded the CBDC wallet, and approximately 3 lakh merchants accepted CBDC payments.

The RBI has tasked banks with promoting the CBDC by interoperating UPI QR codes for e-rupee payments. E-rupee payments provide both the anonymity of cash and the convenience of digital transactions.

Transactions have yet to pick up, owing to the small number of merchants who accept CBDC.

Interoperability would allow any merchant who accepts UPI payments to also accept CBDC, according to RBI deputy governor T Rabi Sankar. This will alleviate concerns about the number of merchants on board, he said at a conference hosted by the Indian Banks' Association.

According to data, 13 banks authorised to deal with CBDC have achieved partial interoperability, which means that QR codes can be scanned and linked to CBDC wallets if they are available.

According to Sankar, the 10 lakh CBDC payments target was not too lofty given the 31 crore UPI transactions. Simultaneously, he added that it was large enough to get a sense of the implications.