Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], September 21 (ANI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday emphasized that the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) transaction charges on UPI payments will not be passed on to the consumers.
The Finance Minister told ANI that she had spoken about the matter during the Parliament session also and accused the opposition parties of spreading misconceptions and trying to mislead people.
She said MDR is a charge levied by service providers to improve the system and provide better service.
”It does not apply to transactions below Rs 2,000. It is neither a tax nor a cess; the funds will not be deposited into the Consolidated Fund of India. It is a charge levied by service providers to improve the system and provide better service, not for small transactions. Moreover, it is a charge between operators; it will not be passed on to the consumer. The burden does not fall on the customer,” she said.
“I provided a clarification on this very point when the issue was raised during the parliamentary session. Spreading misinformation, fueling debates based on it, and using that narrative to attack the government has become a habit for the opposition. This is wrong; there is an effort to spread misconceptions and mislead the public. The public needs to remain vigilant," Sitharaman added.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on September 15 introduced a new Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) framework, under which UPI merchant transactions above Rs 2,000 will attract an MDR of 0.4 per cent, while consumers will continue to transact free of cost using UPI.
The government has said around 96 per cent of P2M transactions will remain unaffected, while MDR will be distributed among payment ecosystem participants, including banks and payment application providers.
Under the new framework, an MDR of 0.4 per cent will apply to Person-to-Merchant (P2M) UPI transactions above Rs 2,000, with the MDR capped at Rs 300 per transaction.
Sitharaman also lashed out at the mimicry at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' event in Indore.
"It is in very poor taste and disrespectful to the constitutional position of the Leader of the Opposition to stand with such people and encourage them. While freedom of speech is essential for our democracy, mocking in this manner is in bad taste; the Leader of the Opposition should not have been there encouraging such behaviour," she said.
Asked about AAP government’s allegations of discrimination against Punjab state over funds from the Centre, Sitharaman said no state is treated in a manner that causes it loss or forces it to suffer undue hardship.
She said such allegations were being made by AAP “to gloss over non-performance” of its government.
“I can stand anywhere and state this confidently, looking anyone straight in the eye. There are no cuts or reductions in the funds due to a state based on its entitlements; we release the payments on time,” she said.
“Therefore, making such baseless allegations is wrong. Perhaps because elections are approaching in Punjab, they are making such statements to gloss over their own non-performance,” she added. (ANI)
MDR on UPI transactions will not be passed on to consumers: Nirmala Sitharaman
