In a July 12 meeting, five former Congress MPs—P. Chidambaram, Manish Tewari, Gaurav Gogoi, Kishori Lal, and K. Gopinath—stood silent as the Standing Committee on Finance pushed for a 0.04 % merchant‑discount‑rate (MDR) on UPI payments above ₹2,000, a fee slated to kick in on October 15, 2024.
Chaired by BJP’s Bhartruhari Mahtab, the committee argued that without the tiered MDR, payment‑service providers risked inadequate support for cybersecurity and infrastructure, citing a ₹2,000‑crore budget allocation against an industry estimate of ₹20,700 crore for operational costs.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition, slammed the move on X, accusing Prime Minister Modi of yielding to U.S. pressure, an allegation the finance ministry dismissed as baseless.
The Centre maintains the MDR is a shared fee among banks, payment‑app providers, and merchants—not a tax—and has ruled out a rollback, meaning the 0.04 % charge will be enforced across the nation before the end of October.