Two trade bodies — the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF) and the All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) — have decided to withdraw from the No UPI (Unified Payments Interface) Day on October 2 after meeting Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to present the concerns and suggestions of the trading and retail fraternity over the proposed UPI merchant discount rate (MDR).
The delegation, led by Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) leader Praveen Khandelwal, asked for the proposed MDR to be deferred ahead of the festive season, which sees heightened business activity.
The traders’ body also asked for a review of the ₹1 lakh threshold limit and an increase to ₹5 lakh. It also asked for merchant-to-merchant (M2M) transactions to be kept outside the purview of MDR and for a committee to be constituted to examine the concerns in detail and recommend a way forward.
“We remain hopeful that the issue raised will be duly considered and appropriately addressed,” both bodies said in their statement.
Earlier, the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture (MCCIA), All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF), Akhil Bharatiya Khadya Tel Vyapari Mahasangh (All India Edible Oil Traders Federation), All India Jewellers and Goldsmith Federation, All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) and Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association had declared October 2 as No UPI Day.
MDR is a fee paid by a merchant for accepting digital payments.
UPI had been free of any charge for the past six years. Now, the National Payments Corporation of India has introduced an MDR structure for select UPI payments from October 15.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) UPI transactions do not attract any fee, while peer-to-merchant UPI transactions above ₹2,000 attract a 0.40 per cent fee. The fee is capped at ₹300.
Payments to small vendors, classified as P2PM (peer-to-peer merchant), will also remain free of any MDR. P2PM merchants are small vendors receiving up to ₹1 lakh a month through UPI, a category that particularly benefits businesses in rural and semi-urban areas.
