Will UPI Transactions Be Charged? Here’s What Finance Ministry Says

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry on Wednesday stated that “speculation and claims that the MDR (merchant discount rate) will be charged on UPI transactions are completely false, baseless, and misleading”.  “Such baseless and sensation-creating speculations cause needless uncertainty, fear and suspicion among our citizens. The Government remains fully committed to promoting digital payments via UPI,” the Finance Ministry mentioned.

The professional rebuttal used to be issued following a number of reviews circulated on-line claiming that the federal government used to be making plans to impose MDR on large-ticket UPI transactions. MDR is a price that banks price traders for processing bills in actual time. Earlier, traders used to pay an MDR price amounting to 1 according to cent of the entire transaction worth on card bills. But in 2020, the federal government waived off MDR fees to advertise virtual bills within the nation.

Meanwhile, UPI processed 18.68 billion transactions in May, consistent with information launched through NPCI on Sunday. In worth phrases, UPI transactions totalled Rs 25.14 lakh crore in May, up from Rs 23.95 lakh crore in April, consistent with information launched through NPCI on Sunday.

The May figures additionally mark a 33 according to cent year-on-year leap in transaction quantity, in comparison to 14.03 billion transactions recorded in the similar month closing 12 months. The moderate day by day transaction quantity for May stood at Rs 81,106 crore, whilst the common day by day transaction quantity used to be 602 million.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) bolstered its dominance in India’s virtual bills gadget with its percentage within the overall transaction quantity emerging to 83.7 according to cent in 2024-25 from 79.7 according to cent within the earlier monetary 12 months.

The RBI’s annual document displays that UPI facilitated 185.8 billion transactions right through 2024-25, which represents a 41 according to cent year-on-year building up. In worth phrases, UPI transactions rose to Rs 261 lakh crore from Rs 200 lakh crore in FY24.

“The success of UPI placed India in a leadership position with a share of 48.5 per cent in global real-time payments by volume,” the RBI stated. Total virtual bills within the nation, together with transactions via cost programs, card networks, and pay as you go cost tools (PPIs), grew 35 according to cent to 221.9 billion in FY25, from 164.4 billion transactions in FY24. In worth phrases, overall virtual bills surged 17.97 according to cent to Rs 2,862 lakh crore.