Supreme Court
PIL filed in Supreme Court challenging 0.4 per cent MDR on UPI payments above Rs 2,000
Petition says additional charges on merchants could ultimately increase costs for consumers
NEW DELHI: A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the government’s move to levy a 0.4 per cent merchant discount rate (MDR) on merchant payments made through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for transactions above Rs 2,000 from October 15.
Advocate Anjan Datta has made the Ministry of Finance, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) parties to the case.
The petition argues that imposing MDR on commercial UPI transactions could have a wider impact on consumers, as businesses may pass on the additional costs.
Datta submitted that the newly introduced charges could ultimately affect citizens, particularly if merchants factor the additional expense into the prices of goods and services.
The PIL seeks quashing of the government’s decision to introduce the MDR on qualifying UPI merchant transactions.
