NPCI may consider MDR on UPI merchant payments above ₹2,000

NPCI’s UPI and Services Steering Committee is reportedly weighing merchant discount rates for UPI transactions above ₹2,000. Smaller payments may remain free, while any new cost-sharing model could affect large merchants, banks, payment apps and aggregators.

— Source publishedTue, 15 Sept, 2026, 15:22 IST·First seen Tue, 15 Sept, 2026, 15:44 IST·Source Business Today · Latest

What happened

NPCI’s committee may introduce MDR on UPI merchant payments above ₹2,000, potentially up to 0.4%. Small payments are expected to remain free, while large

Key facts

  • ₹2,000 threshold for merchant UPI transactions
  • Potential MDR of up to 0.4%
  • Credit-card MDR: 1%-3%
  • Debit-card MDR: about 0.8%-0.9%
  • About 96% of UPI transactions may remain outside MDR scope
  • Potential MDR range: 0.25%-0.50%
  • Estimated annual revenue: ₹15,000 crore-₹30,000 crore
  • UPI and RuPay MDR was removed in 2020

Why this matters

Reassess partnership and acquisition targets in payment aggregation, merchant acquiring and UPI infrastructure, where a confirmed MDR regime could improve revenue economics for high-ticket transactions.

What to watch

  • Formal NPCI, RBI or Ministry of Finance consultation, circular or committee recommendation specifying whether the ₹2,000 threshold applies per transaction, per day or by merchant category.
  • Clarity on MDR cap, who bears the fee, interchange/revenue-sharing rules and whether GST applies to the charge.
  • Government statements on continued UPI subsidy funding and whether MDR is positioned as a replacement for, or complement to, subsidy support.
  • Responses from major merchant associations, e-commerce platforms, quick-commerce firms and payment aggregators.
  • Changes in high-ticket UPI volume, merchant QR acceptance growth, and migration toward cards, net banking or wallet-linked alternatives after any announcement.
  • Large merchants should model checkout-margin exposure by ticket size, category and payment mix, including the likelihood of passing part of any MDR into pricing or promotional budgets.
  • Payment aggregators and PSPs should prepare merchant segmentation, MDR-routing, settlement and disclosure capabilities; higher-value UPI volumes may become a monetizable product tier.
  • Banks and UPI apps should revisit incentive structures, merchant acquisition economics and whether incremental fee income is retained, shared or offset by reduced subsidies.
  • Retailers may steer high-value customers toward lower-cost payment methods, negotiate blended acquiring rates, or split tender/payment flows if the rule design creates threshold arbitrage.
  • Fintechs should assess whether paid high-value UPI improves the business case for premium merchant services, credit, reconciliation and embedded checkout offerings.

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