'Not A Tax, Cess Or Surcharge': Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman On Proposed 0.4% MDR For UPI Transactions Above ₹2,000 | Video
New Delhi: The proposed Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on select high-value UPI transactions is neither a tax, cess nor a surcharge, and the collections will not accrue to the government, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, rejecting criticism from Opposition parties. Also Watch: The Finance Minister said the MDR is a charge within the digital payments ecosystem and is being levied by…
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman clarified that the proposed Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) of 0.4% on high-value UPI transactions above ₹2,000 is not a tax, cess, or surcharge. The collections from this MDR will not be allocated to the government. Instead, the charge is imposed by various participants in the digital payments ecosystem, including payment service providers, merchant banks, and other ecosystem participants.
Sitharaman stated that the MDR is a charge within the digital payments system and is being levied by those facilitating UPI transactions. Of the total MDR collected, 40% will go to customers' banks, 30% to the payment gateway, 20% to the UPI app, and 10% to the sponsoring bank of the UPI app. Sitharaman emphasized that the MDR will not be passed on to consumers and will be absorbed within the merchant payment ecosystem.
Written by urgent.news from Free Press Journal's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
