Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

GTRI said UPI has more than 55 crore users in India, that PhonePe and Google Pay handle more than 80 per cent of its transactions, and that annual UPI payment value last year was more than 91 per cent of GDP.[2] source: ET Small Business NPCI is named as the proposer of a merchant discount rate (MDR) on UPI.[3] source: ET Small Business

UPI recorded 24.07 billion transactions worth Rs 29.37 lakh crore in September 2026, down 1.8% month-on-month, with an average transaction size of Rs 1,012, Medianama reported.[4] source: Medianama An MDR of 0.4% on merchant transactions above Rs 2,000 is scheduled to take effect on 15 October 2026, and trade bodies want it rolled back.[5] source: Business Today The 57th GST Council took no decision on the MDR in October 2026, and Nirmala Sitharaman said deferring the rollout is not for the Council to decide.[6] source: CNBC-TV18 States wanted the 18% GST on MDR exempted or cut to 5%.[6] source: CNBC-TV18 GTRI urged the government to withdraw the fee,[2] source: ET Small Business and Kerala textile traders opposed it.[7] source: The Hindu BusinessLine

An IIT Bombay report recommends cutting the UPI MDR to 0.08% from 0.40%.[5] source: Business Today It also suggests limiting the charge to merchants with turnover above Rs 50 crore.[3] source: ET Small Business The Paisabazaar CEO calculated that a Rs 50,000 payment would cost Rs 200 extra if merchants pass the full 0.4% on to consumers.[8] source: Times of India