Chagres On UPI Payment: No fee will be levied on UPI services, Finance Ministry said – no such idea.
The government has denied reports of imposition of charges on United Payment Interface (UPI). The Finance Ministry on Sunday said that UPI is a useful digital service for the people. The government is not thinking of imposing a duty on this.
The Finance Ministry said in a tweet that UPI is a useful service for the people. This brings great convenience to the people. It also increases the productivity of the economy. The government is not considering imposing any charges for UPI services. The concerns of the service providers will have to be met through other means to recover the cost. As of now, there are no charges for transactions through UPI.
Earlier, the Reserve Bank had indicated to levy charges on payments from UPI. The country’s central bank had issued a discussion paper for this. The Reserve Bank had sought the opinion of the general public on this discussion paper. In this discussion paper, it was also talked about levying charges for making payments through UPI.
The Reserve Bank of India, in its discussion paper, had said that UPI as a fund transfer system ensures real-time transfer of money. In order to ensure the complete process of settlement of payments, PSOs and banks have to spend on creating necessary infrastructure so that transactions can be processed without any risk.
RBI had also clarified in the discussion paper that there is no argument for free services in any economic activity, including any payment system, provided it is not for the good of the people and the welfare of the country. The big question is, who will bear the hefty expenditure on creating the infrastructure to ensure a service?
Along with UPI, the Reserve Bank had also sought public opinion on levying charges on services like debit card transactions, RTGS, NEFT etc. RBI had said that levying charges on payments through Debit Card Payment System, RTGS Payment System (Real Time Gross Settlement) and NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) payment system is not unreasonable as to ensure that these services are An infrastructure has been created for which a huge investment has been made.
