{"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":"

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

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’s bank and other ecosystem participants.<\/p>\n

“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,” Sitharaman told PTI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-national"],"yoast_head":"\nProposed UPI Merchant Discount Rate not a tax, cess or surcharge; will not burden consumers: FM - Awaaz E Haq News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/awaazehaqnews.in\/?p=346\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Proposed UPI Merchant Discount Rate not a tax, cess or surcharge; will not burden consumers: FM - Awaaz E Haq News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og: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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