Government Bars Charges on UPI Payments up to Rs 2,000 and on RuPay Debit Cards

15 September 2026National

The Finance Ministry has barred banks and payment system providers from levying any charge on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions up to Rs 2,000 and on all payments made through RuPay-powered debit cards. The exemption was formalised by an amendment to Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, which lets the Centre notify electronic payment modes that must stay free of charges. Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) may still apply above Rs 2,000. In 2025-26 only 4% of person-to-merchant UPI payments crossed that threshold, yet they carried about two-thirds of UPI value. Rs 2,000 crore is budgeted for 2026-27 to subsidise such low-value transactions.

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NPCI was set up in 2008 as the umbrella organisation for retail payments in India and operates UPI, RuPay, IMPS, NACH and FASTag | UPI was launched by NPCI in April 2016 and RuPay, India's domestic card network, in 2012 | Under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 the RBI is the designated authority for regulating and supervising payment systems in India

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