Move to charge fees for UPI transactions, including Google Pay and Phonepe

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Customers may be charged for various UPI (Unified Payment Interface) transactions via Google Pay, Phonepe, WhatsApp Pay, and Amazon Pay. Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra hinted about this in a debate. However, the final decision will be taken by the Centre. Since it is an issue that affects crores of customers, the Centre will take a decision after much consultation. Currently, UPI transactions are completely free.

Although banks charge 1.1 percent interchange fee for UPI transactions, it is not passed on to the customers because the centre provides it as a subsidy as per the zero Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) policy. Rs 1,500 crore has been allocated in the central budget for this. However, the Reserve Bank of India has said that, although it is a national policy to promote digital payments, subsidy should be avoided in the future to ensure long-term sustainability. If the subsidy is stopped, banks will have to charge this cost from the customers.

Balance can be checked only 50 times a day

• The new changes to UPI transactions, including auto pay and balance check, will come into effect from August 1. This is to increase the reliability, security and speed of transactions
• Bank accounts linked to a phone number cannot be viewed more than 25 times a day. Balance check can be done only 50 times a day
• The payment status of a transaction can be checked only three times. The status can be viewed only every 90 seconds

UPI transactions in India per month: 1,800 crore

Transaction amount per month: 24 lakh crore