The Finance Ministry has clearly made its stand between the ongoing speculation about the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) charge. Media reports claimed that the government may re -apply the merchant discount rate (MDR) on UPI transactions of more than Rs 3000. No charge will be applicable on transactions of less than Rs 3000. 0 MDR Policy i.e. the rule of zero fees on merchants is going on since January 2020. Now the government has said that there is no such plan.
Posting on social media platform, Finance Ministry said that the government has no such plan right now. The speculation and claims of MDR charging on UPI transactions are completely false, baseless and misleading. Such baseless and sensational speculation creates unnecessary uncertainty, fear and doubt among our citizens. The government is fully committed to promoting digital payments through UPI.
What was claimed
Payments Council of India (PCI) has suggested that 0.3% MDR should be imposed on large merchants (whose turnover is high). Regarding which it was claimed in media reports that the government can implement the merchant charge regarding UPI. However, the Finance Ministry has denied this. MDR on Credit/Debit Cards is 0.9% to 2%. There is no charge on RuPay Credit Card.
Media reports also said that Free UPI has made India number one in the world in digital payment, but now banks and payment providers need to be protected from deficit. This requirement can be met by paying fees on big transactions. In such a situation, the government is preparing to implement this fee. It was being said that talks would be held with banks and finance companies before implementing it. Then after advice will be implemented in 12 months. However, the government said that these are all rumors.
Retail has 80 percent of UPI
UPI now has 80 percent retail transaction stake. At the same time, the number of merchant payment is also increasing. Apart from this, the total value of merchant payments on UPI has reached ₹ 60 lakh crore since 2020.