As recurring digital payments explode across India, keeping track of monthly subscriptions has become a chaotic chore for millions of consumers. To solve this, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is developing a centralized application programming interface (API) that will allow all third-party UPI applications (TPAPs) to display a user’s entire list of active electronic mandates in one unified dashboard.
Currently, a UPI AutoPay mandate registered through Google Pay is only visible within Google Pay, leaving users blind to subscriptions they may have set up via PhonePe, Paytm, or their banking app. This new interoperable framework aims to bring total transparency to the recurring payment ecosystem, effectively eliminating “ghost subscriptions” and giving consumers back control over their automated cash flows.
How the Unified Tracking Will Work
The core objective of the NPCI initiative is visibility. Once the open API is integrated, a user logging into any major UPI application will be able to see their complete portfolio of active and pending e-mandates linked to their mobile number, regardless of which platform was originally used to authorize them.
However, there is a technical caveat regarding mandate management. While all apps will be able to display the consolidated list of subscriptions—ranging from streaming services to mutual fund SIPs—the actual authority to alter the instruction remains siloed. If a user spots an unwanted mandate on their PhonePe dashboard that was originally created via Paytm, attempting to cancel or modify it will automatically redirect them to the parent app (Paytm) to complete the revocation.
This in-app tracking feature acts as a massive accessibility upgrade to NPCI’s existing upihelp.npci.org.in portal, moving the centralized tracking directly into the applications where users already manage their daily finances.
The Massive Boom in UPI AutoPay
This regulatory push for better tracking arrives exactly as the UPI AutoPay feature achieves unprecedented scale. Riding on the broader popularity of India’s instant payment network, automated e-mandates have become the default choice for processing systematic investment plans (SIPs), insurance premiums, and media subscriptions.
Recent data highlights this explosive growth. In May, the top ten remitter banks cumulatively processed approximately 1.6 billion e-mandate transactions. This represents an almost threefold increase compared to the 577 million transactions processed during the same period just one year prior. Institutions like the State Bank of India (SBI), Airtel Payments Bank, and Bank of Baroda are currently the largest processors of these automated instructions.
Addressing the Decline Dilemma
Despite the rapid adoption, the underlying mechanics of UPI AutoPay still face significant friction, primarily in the form of massive transaction decline rates.
Because e-mandates operate as “pull” transactions—where the merchant automatically requests the funds on a set date—they rely entirely on the user maintaining an adequate account balance. According to NPCI data, the transaction failure rate remains remarkably high. For SBI, the ecosystem’s largest remitter bank, only about 30% of auto-debit transactions are successfully approved. The remaining 70% fail, predominantly due to business-related issues such as insufficient funds at the moment the mandate is triggered.
By providing users with a unified, cross-app dashboard to track their upcoming automated debits, the NPCI hopes to not only streamline the user experience but also inadvertently improve these approval rates. When consumers can easily see what payments are scheduled to hit their accounts, they are better equipped to maintain the necessary balances, ultimately creating a more reliable recurring payment ecosystem for both users and businesses alike.
