GetePay urges nominal UPI fee as zero-MDR model faces sustainability pressure
RBI-licensed payment aggregator GetePay says a small transaction-linked fee could help fund merchant onboarding, technology, fraud prevention and compliance as UPI increasingly displaces card payments.
What happened
RBI-licensed payment aggregator GetePay says India’s zero-MDR UPI model may need a nominal transaction-linked fee to fund merchant acquisition, technology,
Key facts
- GetePay serves over 1 million merchants
- GetePay works with over 300 partners
- UPI processed 24,162 crore transactions worth ₹314 lakh crore in FY26
- UPI volume grew 30% year-on-year
- UPI value grew 21% year-on-year
- UPI had 55.49 crore onboarded users by June
- UPI represents about 85% of digital-payment transaction volume
- A 5-bps fee on a ₹10,000 transaction would be ₹5
- A 7-bps fee on a ₹10,000 transaction would be ₹7
- Every ₹1 lakh crore of eligible annual value could generate ₹50 crore at 5 bps or ₹70 crore at 7 bps
Why this matters
The sustainability debate around zero-MDR UPI increases the strategic value of acquiring or partnering with payment players that offer fraud, compliance and merchant-services revenue beyond transaction fees.
What to watch
- RBI, NPCI, or Ministry of Finance consultation language on UPI MDR, merchant discount rates, or payment-system sustainability.
- Union Budget or supplementary announcements on UPI incentive funding and disbursement timing.
- NPCI changes to interchange, processing fees, merchant category treatment, transaction caps, or commercial-payment rules.
- Any differentiated pricing proposal for large merchants, P2M transactions, credit-on-UPI, prepaid instruments, or cross-border UPI.
- Merchant acceptance fee increases disguised as platform, settlement, gateway, or value-added-service charges.
- Evidence of reduced QR onboarding, lower active-merchant growth, increased fraud losses, or payment-aggregator exits.
- Growth in credit-on-UPI and RuPay credit-card-on-UPI volumes, which offers a more monetizable route than standard bank-account UPI.
- Payment aggregators will intensify lobbying for a differentiated UPI pricing framework rather than a universal MDR.
- Large merchant acquirers will raise pricing for non-UPI services, including payment gateway access, settlements, reconciliation, fraud monitoring, and omnichannel software.
- Fintechs will prioritize higher-yield merchant cohorts and reduce incentives for small, low-frequency QR merchants.
- Banks and PSPs will seek larger incentive reimbursements and may pressure merchants to shift some acceptance volume toward cards, wallets, or credit-on-UPI products.
- Merchant platforms may introduce paid premium tiers that package UPI acceptance with inventory, loyalty, lending, and analytics tools.
- Consolidation risk rises among smaller payment aggregators unable to spread compliance and fraud costs across large transaction volumes.