First View
Premature to talk about charge on UPI transactions, says Malhotra
This story was originally published at 15:50 IST on 5 August 2026
Register to read our real-time news.Informist, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026
--RBI Malhotra: Premature to talk about charge on UPI transactions
--RBI Malhotra: On UPI transactions, ultimately, consumer has to pay
MUMBAI – Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra said Wednesday it was premature to talk about levying charges on unified payments interface transactions, while noting that the cost of providing such payment services ultimately has to be borne by someone. Malhotra was speaking at a press conference after the conclusion of the Monetary Policy Committee's third bi-monthly meeting for FY27.
"Right now, the companies, their costs have to be paid by someone, whether it is a public fee or not...But, please keep in mind also that ultimately, the consumer in some way or the other is paying the policy. So... It may not be the same consumer...It may be the general economy. And you don't need to see it directly," Malhotra said.
His comments come a day after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 in the Lok Sabha, proposing a host of tax and regulatory changes aimed at boosting investment, manufacturing and ease of doing business.
Under the Bill, the government will have the power to notify electronic payment modes on which banks and payment system providers cannot levy charges, replacing the existing framework linked to the Income-tax Act. The amendment also gives the government flexibility to decide which digital payment modes could attract a merchant discount rate in the future.
Merchant discount rate, or MDR, is a fee paid by merchants to banks or payment service providers for processing digital transactions. End
Reported by Meera Nair
Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury
For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.
Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.
Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000
Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com
© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.
To read more please subscribe
Share this Story:
