The government of India has explained their position about adding extra charges for UPI payments. Multiple news reports said that the government was going to add additional fees to payments made through UPI, and this did not seem to be well received. The government has now said that this is not true.
The government will not charge people for using UPI services, according to a tweet from the Ministry of Finance.
“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 finance ministry said in a tweet.
UPI payment charges: What prompted the whole issue
In 2021, there were 14.55 billion UPI transactions, according to a report by PTI. In terms of value, these transactions totaled Rs 26.19 trillion. In Q1 2022, the number of UPI transactions increased to over 16 billion, a 90% increase compared to 2021, and there was a 99% increase in volume compared to last year.
When the RBI announced that they were going to charge for UPI payments, it was in a paper where they asked for people’s opinions about charging fees for different digital payments, including the RBI. The Government has decreed that there will be no charges for UPI transactions as of January 1, 2020. A few questions about what approach people think is best have been added to this discussion paper because both merchants and users have zero charges in UPI. The paper hopes to get general feedback from readers on this topic.
The finance ministry in its tweet further made it clear that it will continue to encourage adoption of digital payments. “The Govt had provided financial support for #DigitalPayment ecosystem last year and has announced the same this year as well to encourage further adoption of #DigitalPayments and promotion of payment platforms that are economical and user-friendly,” read the tweet.