The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre and others on a petition challenging the decision to impose a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on specified UPI person-to-merchant transactions above Rs 2,000.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana agreed to hear the plea and directed the Centre, the Reserve Bank of India and others to file their counter affidavits within four weeks.
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The bench refused to grant any interim stay on the Centre’s decision to impose MDR.
Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman, appearing for the Centre, told the bench that 96 per cent of people using the gateway were exempt.
“It is less a legal and more a technical issue,” the bench observed.
After the top court issued notice and directed the respondents to file their counter affidavits within four weeks, the counsel appearing for the petitioner requested the bench, “Please stay it till then.”
The bench refused to grant any interim stay. The public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by advocate Anjan Datta.
Ending nearly six years of fully free UPI payments, the government has introduced a 0.4 per cent fee on transfers worth over Rs 2,000 made to merchants through the UPI platform from October 15 while explicitly ring-fencing everyday person-to-person transactions and small payments from any charge.
The MDR will be capped at Rs 300 for payments of Rs 75,000 and above.
Essential and thin-margin sectors — railways, telecom, insurance, fuel and agricultural inputs — will pay a flat MDR of Rs 5 per transaction above Rs 2,000.
Payments into mutual funds, securities and through stockbrokers and dealers will attract 0.02 per cent MDR, also capped at Rs 300.
Person-to-person (P2P) transfers — which make up 37 per cent of UPI’s transaction volume and 70 per cent of its transaction value — will continue to attract zero charges, irrespective of size.
