00:00The day after the government announced that there will be a levy of 0.4% on UPI transactions
00:07above rupees 2000, leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi has accused the Narendra Modi
00:13government of taking this decision under US pressure and bowing down to the Trump administration
00:19which is trying to protect, is the claim being made, the credit card companies that are based
00:25in the United States. The government however claims that 96% of the UPI transactions will
00:32be out of this merchant discounting rate and there was a sudden inevitability about this
00:37happening sooner rather than later with the government claiming that consumers will be
00:42protected, the burden of this tax, of these discount rates will not be passed on to consumers.
00:49Take a look at this report.
01:02A day after the National Payment Corporation of India announced 0.4% merchant discount rate
01:09charge on UPI transactions above 2000 rupees, the opposition is raising the heat on the government
01:16calling the new levy a tax. Leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi posted a video on social media accusing
01:23the government of surrendering to American pressure.
01:29Modi ji has a completely different concept. He is neither left nor right. He has decided
01:33to lie down straight and prostrate himself in front of Donald Trump. He has put a tax on
01:41every single Indian person by taxing UPI and giving huge amount of money to the United States.
01:47Modi ji, please stop lying down in front of the United States. Have a spine.
01:52stand up and give up the UPI tax. Thank you.
01:58The Congress has alleged the new charges are for the benefit of companies like GPay and
02:04Phonepay which have significant American shareholding.
02:09the U.P.I. is nothing but a digital platform that was created by India's institutions, India's
02:14banks for digital payments. MDR is merchant discount rate, a processing fee that is given
02:20to banks and institutions to process this. And like I said, the new rules will involve a
02:26point four percent MDR on commercial transaction upwards of 2,000 rupees. The total value of that
02:34transaction is 66.22 lakh crore rupees. That's the quantum of money that the tax will be levied
02:42on. That's the quantum of money that has been put into the pockets of American companies at the cost of
02:48ordinary Indians.
02:49The BGP has rejected Congress charges. The party says the charges will be paid by merchant and not consumers.
02:57And it will not affect the poor people.
03:02This country is 50% of global financial transactions in 11 countries in the U.P.I.
03:15country.
03:24And it requires that it is a platform which is being not only used in India, but now it is
03:30being used in many countries and many countries are introducing this platform. So it needs to be very robust, very
03:35robust and it requires for being robust.
03:39It also requires a little bit of investment as well. And that investment will be generalised through the charges for
03:46small charges to be borne by merchants and not by the end user of the consumer.
03:52U.P.I. transactions totaled 314 lakh crore in value in 2025. Government claims over 55 crore people use U
04:03.P.I. as of June 2026,
04:06making it the world's largest real-time payments platform. The newly announced charges on U.P.I. transactions are now
04:14a political flashpoint,
04:16with the opposition sensing an opportunity to corner the government. Bureau Report, India Today.
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