Mobile retailers to observe ‘No UPI Day’ on October 2 over proposed MDR
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Mobile retailers across India will temporarily suspend UPI payments and cover their QR codes on October 2 as part of a nationwide protest against the proposed Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on merchant transactions.
The All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) has called for a nationwide “No UPI Day” on October 2, urging mobile phone retailers to stop accepting UPI payments for a day. The protest will be held ahead of the proposed new MDR regime, under which a 0.4 per cent fee will apply to specified person-to-merchant UPI transactions above Rs 2,000 from October 15.
The charge will be capped at Rs 300 per transaction, while person-to-person transfers and eligible merchant payments up to Rs 2,000 will remain outside the levy.
AIMRA vice-president and Delhi-NCR president Tarvinder Singh said participating retailers would cover their UPI QR codes with black cloth and suspend UPI payment acceptance as a symbolic protest on Gandhi Jayanti.
The association has raised concerns about the impact of the proposed MDR on retailers operating on relatively thin margins. In a representation submitted to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, AIMRA estimated that a retailer processing between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 30 lakh in monthly UPI transactions could face an additional monthly cost of Rs 2,000 to Rs 12,000.
It estimated that the proposed charge could create a combined burden of around Rs 40 crore a month, or nearly Rs 500 crore annually, for small mobile retailers across the country.
Singh said the protest was not directed against UPI or digital payments but against the additional cost for merchants. AIMRA has demanded that merchant UPI payments continue under a zero-MDR structure.