No, There Won’t Be Any Service Charges For UPI Transactions | Ministry Of Finance Was Only Seeking ‘Public Opinion’

There have been a string of concerns regarding the government’s anticipated plans to charge an additional levy on the use of UPI payments in the country.

However, the Centre has laid the concerns to rest amidst a series of tweets on Sunday.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the Govt is considering no plans to levy any sort of charges on the use of UPI payments in the country and sees the digital payments interface as a ‘digital public good’.

Here’s everything you need to know upon the development announced on Sunday.

Govt Clears Stance on Levying Additional Charges on UPI Payments

The Centre has clarified that it has no considerations of charging any additional levy on UPI services, adding that the cost of recovery has to be met through other means.

There is no consideration in Govt to levy any charges for UPI services. The concerns of the service providers for cost recovery have to be met through other means: Ministry of Finance on reports of imposing extra charges to be paid for every UPI payment pic.twitter.com/d3u49lOpZT

— ANI (@ANI) August 21, 2022

The government has in fact, provided financial aid to the ecosystem of digital payments in the country, and has announced to extend this financial assistance this year too for further adoption of digital payments.

It tweeted, “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 concerns of the service providers for cost recovery have to be met through other means.”

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,” the tweet stated.

Further, a note from the central bank, RBI’s ‘Discussion Paper on Charges in payment Systems’ read, 

“RBI has not issued instructions regarding charges for UPI transactions. The Government has mandated a zero-charge framework for UPI transactions with effect from January 1, 2020… This means that charges in UPI are nil for users and merchants alike. Keeping in view that the intent of this discussion paper is to elicit general feedback, a few questions on what approach should be adopted, have been included.”