UPI and RuPay Merchant Charges Can Come Back: Effects on Users

The Indian government is planning to reintroduce merchant charges on RuPay debit card and UPI transactions, with a focus mainly on big merchants with turnovers over ₹40 lakh annually. None of these modes of payment attracts any merchant discount rate (MDR) now. The suggestion is to implement a tiered pricing structure in which bigger entities would have to pay more whereas smaller ones would still get free transactions. This step is intended to ease the taxpayers' financial burden, who at present subsidize these transactions. Users will not be directly impacted by the reintroduction of MDR, as merchants pay the fees. But it can affect pricing schemes for goods and services presented by large merchants.

Source: Economic Times