UPI users against levying fee on transactions: Survey

As UPI transactions are growing, fintech manufacture players and banks person been pushing the authorities and regulators to licence a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) connected UPI transactions. In different words, they privation to levy a interest connected merchants/ businesses for UPI transactions akin to however it is levied connected merchants successful the lawsuit of debit and recognition paper transactions.

The request for MDR has led to tiny merchants and consumers expressing their discontent. Consumers judge that if MDR charges are introduced for merchants, they volition successful crook walk it connected to them, conscionable similar it happens successful the lawsuit of recognition and debit cards. It is rather communal for tiny merchants to request a processing complaint from consumers who are utilizing recognition oregon debit cards to marque payments.

MDR is simply a interest charged from merchants oregon concern owners erstwhile they person payments from customers via integer methods. Many firms including Amazon had called for the implementation of the MDR authorities for UPI transactions.

As exertion penetration and smartphone users emergence successful India, the usage of UPI for integer payments excessively is rising, some successful presumption of transactions and value. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) precocious announced interchange changes (similar to merchant discount rates) for pre-sanctioned UPI recognition lines offered by banks. The caller charges volition beryllium effectual from October 16, 2024.

As the survey shows 38 per cent of respondents indicated that they are conducting implicit 50 per cent of their outgo transactions via UPI and 37 per cent were recovered to beryllium conducting implicit 50 per cent of their outgo by value. “With UPI rapidly becoming an integral portion of astir 4 successful 10 consumers, determination is beardown absorption to immoderate benignant of nonstop oregon indirect transaction charges being imposed,” the survey said.

LocalCircles conducted its six-monthly survey which received implicit 44,000 responses from consumers located successful 325 districts of India.

During the Covid pandemic, availability of contactless integer outgo solutions specified arsenic BHIM-UPI facilitated social distancing and continuity of concern for merchants. NPCI posted a grounds 57 per cent emergence successful the measurement of transactions and 44 per cent emergence successful worth successful the 2023-24 fiscal year, compared to the erstwhile fiscal year.

For the archetypal time, UPI transactions crossed 100 cardinal and closed astatine 131 cardinal successful a fiscal year, compared to 84 cardinal successful 2022-23, portion successful worth it touched Rs 199.89 trillion, compared to Rs 139.1 trillion.

In the archetypal 3 months of the existent fiscal year, UPI transactions person grown implicit 36 per cent to Rs 66 lakh crore, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary had told Lok Sabha. “Also, 4,122 crore UPI transactions worthy Rs 60 lakh crore took spot betwixt April-June 2024-25,” helium said.

Globally India has the highest real-time transaction measurement which is threefold of the closest challenger China. Starting with 21 banks successful 2016, the UPI oregon the country’s integer payments ecosystem has expanded to 381 banks, enabling billions of integer transactions each month.