New Delhi7 minutes ago
- Copy link
Earlier, the Payment Council of India wrote a letter to Prime Minister Modi to put a 0.3% merchant discount rate.
The central government is considering charging a UPI transaction of more than Rs 3,000. For this, 0.3% merchant discount rate (MDR) can be re -implemented. That is, a charge can be charged up to 30 rupees on UPI payment of 10 thousand.
The new rules can be brought in view of the increasing infrastructure and operational expenses of banks and payment service providers. According to the NDTV report, new rules can be implemented within 2 months. Recently, PMO, Ministry of Finance and other departments have met. The policy will be implemented only after discussion with all stakeholders (banks, fintech companies, NPCI).
To which charge will be applied?
MDR will not be charged on small shopkeepers and small transactions, only big merchants and transactions above Rs 3,000 will be charged.
UPI transaction increased by 4% in a month
In May 2025, 18,67 crore transactions took place through Unified Payment Interface (UPI). During this period, a total amount of Rs 25.14 lakh crore was transferred during this period. The number of transactions has increased by 33% in a month.
18,67 crore UPI transactions took place in May
| month | Number of transactions In crores |
Transferred amount In lakh crore rupees |
|---|---|---|
| May 2025 | 18,67 | 25.14 |
| April 2025 | 17,89 | 23.94 |
Payment Council of India wrote letters to Prime Minister
Earlier, the Payment Council of India wrote a letter to Prime Minister Modi. The letter has demanded PM Modi to reconsider the Zero Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) policy. Council, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and RuPay debit card transactions are in favor of imposing 0.3% merchant discount rate.
The Economic Times has given this information quoting two senior bank officials as saying. Currently, no merchant discount rate (MDR) is imposed on these payment methods, as the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) provides facility.
How does MDR work and why removed it?
Prior to 2022, merchants had to pay less than 1% MDR of transaction amount to banks. However, the government removed these charges in the financial year-22 budget to promote digital payment. Since then UPI has become the most used payment method and Rupay has also become quite popular.
Meanwhile, the industry’s insidars say that large retail merchants averages with more than 50% payment card. Therefore, a small fee is unlikely to have any major impact on UPI payment.
