The Union Finance Minister on Sunday said that the government is not considering levying any charge carried out through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). This came amid speculation when the Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) planned to impose costs on the payment system, including UPI, NEFT and IMPS. The central government also said that other means would work out for UPI platforms to recover the cost of their services.
“UPI is a digital public good with immense convenience for the public & productivity gains for the economy. There is no consideration in the government to levy any charges for UPI services. The concerns of the service providers for cost recovery have to be met through other means,” the finance ministry said in a tweet.
“The Govt had provided financial support for the digital payments ecosystem last year and has announced the same this year as well to encourage further adoption of digital payments and promotion of payment platforms that are economical and user-friendly,” it added.
The RBI invited feedback from the public on various changes proposed in the payment systems. After receiving the complaints from the customers, the bank stated, ━ “To ensure this balance, it was considered useful to carry out a comprehensive review of the various charges levied in the payment systems by highlighting different dimensions and seeking stakeholder feedback”.
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The discussion paper from RBI covers all aspects, including Immediate Payment Services (IMPS), National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system, Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system and Unified Payments Interface (UPI), while including various other payments methods, debit cards, credit cards and prepaid payment instruments.
