Banks approve reduced fees for UPI, RuPay

Bengaluru: Banks have decided that they will not charge a part of the fees on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and RuPay card transactions as long as the merchant discount rate (MDR) remains zero following the government announcement, three people aware of the matter said. After a letter from the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) on removing entire fees on these transactions, which would have meant significant revenue loss for its owner National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the two parties have reached an understanding for now.
The move was discussed and approved in the NPCI steering committee meeting on Monday, said the sources mentioned earlier. TOI reported in its January 24 edition, saying IBA had asked NPCI to remove multiple charges like interchange fees, payments service provider (PSP) fee and switching fees. “Interchange will be zero is what was decided in yesterday’s meeting. NPCI is still reviewing other fees, but it is against making those fees to nil,” one of the people mentioned earlier said.