Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has backed the Centre’s move to introduce a 0.4 per cent merchant discount rate (MDR) on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments above Rs 2,000. Abdullah highlighted everyone is not charged, and running the UPI system is not “cheap”, notably a different stand from the National Conference’s ally partner Congress.
The Jammu and Kashmir CM also stated that the government should ensure that any charges related to UPI transactions do not burden the common people.
“Not everyone is charged. First of all, person-to-person money transfers are not charged. After that, individual consumers will not be charged unless they cross a certain ceiling limit. As far as I understand, running this UPI system is not cheap. It takes a lot of money to run it,” the J&K CM said.
#WATCH | Srinagar: On UPI MDR charges, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah says, "These charges do not apply to everyone. There are no charges for person-to-person money transfers. Furthermore, individual consumers will not face charges unless they exceed a certain… pic.twitter.com/POTEcxC4gn
— ANI (@ANI) September 16, 2026
He even highlighted that people often fail to properly appreciate things they receive for free.
“And the truth is, we don’t properly appreciate what we get for free. The Government of India should ensure that the general public is not charged these fees. If a company is charged, I have no objection because companies make good money through UPI anyway,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi Slams Centre:
The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, criticised the Narendra Modi government over the UPI move. In a video message posted on X, Gandhi said, “He has put a tax on every single Indian person by taxing UPI and giving huge amounts of money to the United States,” the Cngress MP said in the video.
Modi ji, roll back the UPI tax. Now. pic.twitter.com/IIt46zMgCG
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 16, 2026
Notably, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Tuesday announced a new MDR structure, with UPI merchant transactions above ₹2,000 set to carry an MDR of 0.4 per cent, while customers will continue to use UPI without any charges.
The updated framework will take effect from October 15, 2026, and will apply only to specified categories of merchant transactions.
Under this new framework, an MDR of 0.4 per cent will apply to Person-to-Merchant (P2M) UPI transactions above Rs 2,000, with the MDR capped at Rs 300 per transaction.