The Supreme Court has refused to stay the government's decision to levy a fee on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions exceeding Rs 2,000. The court has sought the government's response on the petition challenging this move.
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to issue a stay on the Union government’s decision to impose fees on UPI transactions worth more than Rs 2,000. Live Law reported that the court requested the government to respond to the petition contesting the move. The court's decision came following notifications issued by the Ministry of Finance on September 14 and September 15 stating that merchants would incur a merchant discount rate (MDR) of 0.4% for UPI transactions above Rs 2,000. This fee typically ranges from 1% to 3% for credit card payments and can be up to 0.9% for debit card transactions. The petitioner argued before the court that businesses might pass on this additional cost to consumers. The Chief Justice of India expressed concern over the matter, suggesting that the government should present its case in an affidavit due to the technical nature of the issue. N Venkataraman, representing the Union government, stated before the court that only 4% of transactions would attract the charge, with the fees taking effect on October 15. He also clarified that the government would not receive any revenue from these charges but rather payment aggregators and banks would settle the fees among themselves. The government had previously clarified that the cap for the fee was set at Rs 300 per transaction for amounts exceeding Rs 75,000. Additionally, it stated that the new framework would have no impact on person-to-person transactions. It also advised banks to ensure that customers are not burdened with these charges.
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