Will UPI Start Charging You? What the 2026 MDR Amendment Actually Says
Will UPI Start Charging You? What the 2026 MDR Amendment Actually Says By The Bystander | August 2026 | Tags: UPI MDR, UPI charges 2026, Payment and Settlement Systems Act, NPCI, digital payments India The direct answer: No — there is no proposal to charge ordinary users for UPI payments. What Parliament is being asked to pass is an enabling amendment to Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, which removes a legal bar. It does not itself impose any fee. If a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) is eventually introduced, the government says it will be threshold-based and apply only to some merchants — with small merchants and all consumers left out. The honest caveat: an enabling provision is exactly that. It creates the power to charge without specifying who, how much, or when. What's in this guide What MDR actually is — and who has been paying it What changed in August 2026 The sustainability argument for reversing zero-MDR The part nobody wants ...