The rollout of Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on select Person-to-Merchant (P2M) Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions has been deferred to immediately after Diwali, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said on Tuesday, October 13.
The new implementation date will be notified separately.
In an official statement, NPCI said the UPI and Services Steering Committee had taken the decision on Tuesday (October 13), keeping the festive season in mind.
“UPI and Services Steering Committee today decided that, keeping in mind the festive season, Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on select Person-to-Merchant (P2M) UPI transactions, shall be implemented immediately post Diwali at a date to be notified separately,” NPCI said.
The rollout was earlier scheduled to take effect from October 15.
CNBC-TV18 had earlier reported that the implementation was likely to be deferred to a date after Diwali. NPCI’s statement has now confirmed the deferment, although the exact date is yet to be announced.
MDR is a fee associated with processing merchant transactions through digital payment systems. The proposed charges concern select P2M UPI transactions, which involve payments made by customers to merchants.
According to the earlier details, a 0.4% MDR was set to apply to select P2M UPI transactions above ₹2,000. The reported structure also included a cap of ₹300 for transactions of ₹75,000 and above, along with a flat ₹5 rate for select categories.