BJP Spokesman Says UPI Charges Won't Impact Common People
BJP national media coordinator Siddharth Yadav defended the government's decision to impose charges on certain UPI transactions. He called India's digital payment system a major achievement, noting that ₹29.82 lakh crore moves monthly through UPI, making it the world's largest such system.
Yadav outlined the charge structure issued via government notification on September 14. Transactions up to ₹2,000 remain free for all users. Person-to-person transfers above ₹2,000 are entirely free. Small merchants with monthly collections up to ₹1 lakh face no charges. Auto-debit services for OTT subscriptions, SIPs and bill payments also remain free. Only large merchants face a 0.4% merchant discount rate (MDR) on transactions above ₹2,000.
Yadav clarified that MDR is not a tax but maintenance cost for UPI infrastructure, which requires ₹20,000 crore annually. The government provides subsidies to offset expenses. Since 96% of transactions are under ₹2,000, he argued the policy would not affect ordinary citizens.
