UPI has evolved as one of the most popular modes of daily online digital transactions.
India’s Finance Ministry stated Unified Payments Interface services are a digital public good and issued a clarification that no charges will be levied on it.
“UPI is a digital public good with immense convenience for the public & productivity gains for the economy. There is no consideration in Govt to levy any charges for UPI services,” the Ministry of finance tweeted. “The concerns of the service providers for cost recovery have to be met through other means.”
The clarification came amid confusion after the Reserve Bank of India, on August 17, released a discussion paper on “Charges in Payment Systems” for public feedback.
“The discussion paper covers all aspects relating to charges in payment systems [such as Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system, Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system and Unified Payments Interface (UPI)] and various payment instruments [such as debit cards, credit cards, and Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs)], etc,” the press release stated.
The mention of UPI in the release raised speculation that there could soon be charges on such transactions too. However, the RBI is seeking feedback, which needs to be submitted via email on or before October 3, 2022, on the larger issue of the payment system and does not propose to charge these transactions.
Over the last couple of years, UPI has evolved as one of the most popular modes of daily online digital transactions. In fact, July reported the highest-ever digital transactions since 2016 with a total value of 10,62,991.76 crore according to the National Payments Council of India.
