Relief as Centre says not considering levying any charge on UPI transactions

The government is not considering levying any charge on transactions carried out through Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the Union finance ministry clarified on Sunday. This came amid speculation that the government may be looking to impose a fee on the popular mode of financial transaction. The Centre also said other means would be worked out for UPI platforms to recover the cost of their services.

“UPI is a digital public good with immense convenience for the public & productivity gains for the economy. There is no consideration in Govt to levy any charges for UPI services. The concerns of the service providers for cost recovery have to be met through other means,” the ginance ministry said in a tweet.

“The Govt had provided financial support for #DigitalPayment ecosystem last year and has announced the same this year as well to encourage further adoption of #DigitalPayments and promotion of payment platforms that are economical and user-friendly,” it added.

Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had invited feedback from the public on the various changes proposed in the payments system, including the possibility of imposing tiered charges on transactions done through the UPI.

As announced in the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies dated December 08, 2021, the central bank released a discussion paper on “Charges in Payment Systems” for public feedback, the RBI said in a statement. The discussion paper was released on August 17.

Counted as one of the most successful Real-Time Payments (RTP) systems globally, UPI clocked a volume of USD 940 billion (39 billion transactions) in 2021, equivalent to 31 per cent of India’s GDP.

(With inputs from agencies)