{"id":346,"date":"2026-09-25T09:41:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awaazehaqnews.in\/?p=346"},"modified":"2026-09-25T09:41:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:41:52","slug":"proposed-upi-merchant-discount-rate-not-a-tax-cess-or-surcharge-will-not-burden-consumers-fm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awaazehaqnews.in\/?p=346","title":{"rendered":"Proposed UPI Merchant Discount Rate not a tax, cess or surcharge; will not burden consumers: FM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The proposed Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on select high-value UPI transactions is neither a tax, cess nor a surcharge, and the collections will not accrue to the government, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, rejecting criticism from Opposition parties.<\/p>\n<p>The Finance Minister said the MDR is a charge within the digital payments ecosystem and is being levied by entities facilitating UPI transactions, including payment service providers, merchant&#8217;s bank and other ecosystem participants.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is not a tax, this is not a cess, this is not even a surcharge. And the collection is not coming to the Consolidated Fund of India,&#8221; Sitharaman told PTI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The proposed Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on select high-value UPI transactions is neither a tax, cess nor a surcharge, and the collections will not accrue to the government, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, rejecting criticism from Opposition parties. The Finance Minister said the MDR is a charge within the digital payments ecosystem and is being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-national"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.5 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The proposed Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on select high-value UPI transactions is neither a tax, cess nor a surcharge, and the collections will not accrue to the government, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, rejecting criticism from Opposition parties. 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