India’s click-and-pay UPI services will attract a fractional charge above Rs 2,000 for merchant payments, the government has notified, though it ruled out charging for person-to-person transactions. The new UPI Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) framework will be effective from October 15.
New UPI Charges Announced by NPCI
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has introduced new rules for the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which will impose a 0.4% charge on transactions from consumers to merchants. The Finance Ministry has confirmed that this charge will not be passed on to customers.
For certain merchant categories, including railways, telecom services, insurance, and fuel, a flat fee of Rs 5 will apply to UPI payments exceeding Rs 2,000.
NPCI clarified, “Consumers will continue to transact free of cost using UPI as they have been doing till now. Person-to-Person (P2P) transactions and Person-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions up to Rs 2,000 remain outside the scope of MDR.”
