India faces POS terminal shortage as chip shortages slow imports
India's digital payments scene is facing a crunch, there just aren't enough point-of-sale (POS) terminals to keep up.
Thanks to chip shortages in China and the West Asia crisis, importing new machines has slowed down, leaving banks and fintechs scrambling.
Merchants especially want upgraded devices for UPI, tap-and-pay, and chip-and-PIN payments, but supply can't keep up with demand.
Pine Labs reports 200,000-device backlog
Pine Labs's CEO Amrish Rau shared there's a 200,000-device deployment backlog now, and UPI makes up 70% of POS transactions for midsized merchants.
Innoviti's Rajeev Agrawal said companies are stretching terminal lifespans from five to eight years just to cope with costs.
Meanwhile, prices have jumped by 15% to 20%, with devices now costing over ₹10,000 and imports delayed unless orders are confirmed.
Despite all this, new deployments are still growing at about 5% each year.