New Delhi: The Union Finance Ministry on Wednesday dismissed reports that an additional charge will be levied on UPI transactions.
“Speculation and claims that the MDR (merchant discount rate) will be charged on UPI transactions are completely false, baseless, and misleading. Such baseless and sensation-creating speculations cause needless uncertainty, fear and suspicion among our citizens. The Government remains fully committed to promoting digital payments via UPI,” the Finance Ministry stated.
The official rebuttal was issued after several online reports claimed that the Central government was planning to impose MDR on large-ticket UPI transactions, IANS reported.
MDR is a fee that banks charge merchants for processing payments in real time.
Merchants earlier used to pay an MDR fee amounting to 1 per cent of the total transaction value on card payments. However, in 2020, the government waived MDR charges to promote digital payments in the country.
According to data released by NPCI recently, UPI processed 18.68 billion transactions in May.
In terms of value, UPI transactions totalled Rs 25.14 lakh crore in May, up from Rs 23.95 lakh crore in April.
The May figures mark a 33 per cent year-on-year jump in transaction volume, compared to 14.03 billion transactions recorded in the same month last year. The average daily transaction amount for May was Rs 81,106 crore, while the average daily transaction volume was 602 million.
