Centre Introduces New Rules for Digital Payments

The central government has introduced a bill in Parliament that could allow the imposition of Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charges on certain UPI merchant transactions above ₹2,000 in the future. However, no charges have been implemented yet. The bill only provides legal authority for the government to decide and introduce such charges through a notification at a later stage.

The proposed changes are applicable only to merchant payments and not to person to person (P2P) UPI transactions. The government will later decide the percentage of charges and the transactions covered under the rule. The move is aimed at ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of the digital payment ecosystem.