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Informist, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – One MobiKwik Systems Ltd. is expected to generate an additional net profit of up to INR 380 million in the financial year 2027-28 (Apr-Mar) with the rollout of merchant discount rate on the unified payments interface for certain transactions over INR 2,000, according to Chief Financial Officer Upasana Taku.

 

The newly-introduced merchant discount rate will further lead to incremental gross revenues of INR 1.5 billion, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in a report Wednesday, quoting the senior official. "Of this, around 25% could flow through to the bottom line," Taku said in an expert session hosted by the brokerage. The incremental gross revenues are expected to be generated from merchant-side and consumer-side monetisation as well as relevant bill-payment revenue, among others. "...the eligible transactions could represent approximately 15-20% of UPI GMV (gross merchandise value), as the threshold is linked to transaction value," the report said. The payment intermediaries will benefit from the value of transactions rather than the absolute transaction count.

 

Tuesday, the government announced a merchant discount rate of 0.4% on certain person-to-merchant payments of over INR 2,000 using Unified Payments Interface effective Oct. 15. Person-to-person transactions will remain completely free. The rate will apply only to specified person-to-merchant transactions above INR 2,000, with the rate capped at INR 300 for transactions of INR 75,000 and above, according to a government release.

 

One MobiKwik expects the implementation of the merchant discount rate to evolve further, enabling banks and payment companies to gain "greater clarity on the economics and finer details of the framework," Taku said in the report. The merchant discount rate will speed up acquisition of merchants while improving their economics. 

 

The management also expects a separate framework for wallet-on-UPI transactions and believes that the eventual merchant discount rate could be higher than the standard Unified Payments Interface rate. As per the report, Taku made a case for 'Pocket UPI', adding a few millions to the current INR-1.5-billion opportunity, although the timing and final economics need to be watched. "Given MobiKwik's sizeable wallet franchise, the opportunity could therefore be more meaningful for bottom-line growth than just topline alone," the report said.

 

However, One MobiKwik does not expect the introduction of the merchant discount rate to "materially alter UPI's long-term growth trajectory". "While there could be some initial friction among merchants and consumers, UPI remains structurally cheaper than alternative payment instruments," the report said.

 

Going forward, Unified Payments Interface is expected to expand into smaller cities and towns, Taku said. "...merchant onboarding in tier-3 and tier-4 markets remains a significant opportunity, particularly as merchants continue to migrate toward digital acceptance." Payment companies are expected to have greater incentive to gain from "higher-ticket transactions" by investing and growing in these markets, the report said. "As such, the change in P&L (profit and loss) economics could support faster expansion beyond the existing urban merchant base."

 

For the June quarter, One MobiKwik had posted net profit of INR 76.16 million on total income of INR 2.89 billion. At 1253 IST, its shares traded at INR 203.50 apiece on the National Stock Exchange, up 2.6% from Wednesday.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Radhika Tiwari

Edited by Shubhayan Bhattacharya

 

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