Five Congress MPs – P. Chidambaram, Manish Tewari, Gaurav Gogoi, Kishori Lal and K. Gopinath – threw their weight behind a tiered UPI Merchant Discount Rate framework during the Lok Sabha session on 12 August 2024. The committee report had already been drafted earlier that year, and the MPs’ support was recorded in the chamber’s minutes with no dissent.
The Standing Committee on Finance had been pushing for a revenue‑generating model for UPI since the start of the year, arguing that a sustainable fee structure was essential to keep the digital payments ecosystem afloat. Its draft outlined a three‑year scheme, cashback incentives for Tier‑3 to Tier‑6 cities, and a tiered fee cap for high‑value transactions.
Rahul Gandhi took aim at the Centre’s decision to impose fees on UPI transactions above ₹2,000, accusing the government of yielding to foreign pressure. In response, NDA leaders – including Union Minister Ramdas Athawale and MP Gulam Ali Khatana – dismissed Gandhi’s allegations as baseless and defended the fee policy as fair for small vendors.
The committee warned that any delay in notifying and operationalising the tiered MDR would force payment service providers to rely on inadequate subsidies, jeopardising investments in cybersecurity, fraud prevention and network infrastructure.
The Ministry of Finance has scheduled a review of the committee’s recommendation in its upcoming policy meeting, after which it may issue a formal notification to bring the MDR framework into effect.