Finance Ministry Clarifies: No Charges on UPI Transactions Over Rs 3,000

New Delhi: The Union Finance Ministry on Wednesday issued a clarification on reports that the Centre considered charging Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions from users.

In an X post, the finance ministry debunked the reports saying that speculation and claims that the MDR will be charged on UPI transactions are “completely false, baseless, and misleading.”

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“Such baseless and sensation-creating speculations cause needless uncertainty, fear and suspicion among our citizens. The Government remains fully committed to promoting digital payments via UPI,” the post read.

Speculation and claims that the MDR will be charged on UPI transactions are completely false, baseless, and misleading.

Such baseless and sensation-creating speculations cause needless uncerta.inty, fear and suspicion among our citizens.

The Government remains fully committed…

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) June 11, 2025

Earlier, an NDTV report claimed that transactions through UPI of Rs 3,000 and above would attract charges, aiming to manage the bank infrastructure and operational costs.

Banks and payment service providers had recently raised concerns about the rising cost of handling high-value digital transactions, leading to the purported consideration of charging for UPI payments. The UPI transactions account for nearly 80 per cent of the retail digital transactions in the country.

The Payments Council of India has proposed a 0.3 per cent Merchant Discount Rate on large merchants for UPI transactions

“While small-ticket UPI payments would likely remain exempt, larger transactions could soon carry a merchant fee, reversing the zero-MDR policy in place since January 2020,” NDTV quoted a government source.

The report had stated that the decision to charge for UPI payments is likely to be made in a month or two after consultations with stakeholders, including banks, fintech firms, and the National Payments Corporation of India.

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Once implemented, the policy would mark a shift from incentivising UPI adoption to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the digital payments ecosystem.

The value of UPI person-to-merchant transactions has reached Rs 60 lakh crore since 2020, reflecting the platform’s deep market penetration and high consumer trust, particularly in large transactions where service providers bear higher costs.