Mumbai, September 24, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Around 75 per cent of India’s digital payment-accepting merchants will remain unaffected by the newly introduced merchant discount rate (MDR) on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions above Rs 2,000, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) Managing Director and CEO Dilip Asbe said on Thursday.
Speaking at the SBI Banking and Economic Conclave in Mumbai, Asbe said India has more than 60 million unique merchants accepting digital payments, of whom nearly 75 per cent have never recorded a UPI transaction exceeding Rs 2,000.
“We have about 60 million unique UPI merchants, and 75 per cent of them have not seen a transaction above Rs 2,000. Therefore, the majority of merchants will not be impacted by the MDR,” he said.
Asbe explained that the bulk of the MDR burden is expected to fall on larger businesses. He said around 80 per cent of the total MDR value is expected to come from merchants generating more than Rs 1,000 crore in annual gross merchandise value (GMV).
Of the remaining MDR value, nearly half is expected to come from businesses with annual GMV exceeding Rs 1 crore, he added.
According to Asbe, most of these larger merchants already accept credit card payments and are familiar with similar transaction charges. The industry, therefore, does not expect them to pass the additional cost on to customers.
“A significant portion of MDR is expected to come from large businesses, most of which already accept card payments and pay MDR,” Asbe said.
He, however, acknowledged that a small segment accounting for around 10 per cent of the overall merchant value could potentially try to transfer the MDR burden to consumers.
Asbe said banks, payment aggregators, acquiring banks and NPCI would work to ensure that such charges are not passed on to customers.
“The real risk of a consumer getting charged is just 10 per cent of the overall value,” he said.
The NPCI chief also expressed confidence that the new MDR framework would not have a significant impact on UPI transaction volumes or values.
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