NEW DELHI: Congress on Thursday refuted the Centre’s declare that 5 of its members supported the federal government’s determination to introduce a service provider low cost fee of 0.4% on UPI funds above Rs 2,000, saying that no such dialogue occurred through the Parliamentary Standing Committee assembly.In a social media submit on X, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi mentioned that the division of finance didn’t have any particular proposal on UPI tax when it met members of the finance committee.“The Parliament standing committee on finance has not mentioned the UPI tax proposal that the Modi authorities has lately introduced,” Gogoi mentioned.“The division of finance didn’t have any particular proposal on UPI tax once they met the members of the finance committee. Questions have been raised on the necessity for MDR however the representatives of the federal government didn’t have any particular or passable solutions at that time,” he added.He reiterated the occasion’s demand to roll again MDR on UPI and mentioned, “I reiterate that the current UPI tax insurance policies damage the small Indian retailers, distributors, entrepreneurs and assist the foremost American companies. Roll again UPI tax. Cease surrendering, PM Modi.”One other Congress MP, Manish Tewari, backed Gogoi and accused the Centre of utilizing the privileged proceedings of the Parliamentary Standing Committee to “rating brownie factors.”“It’s unlucky that proceedings of Parliamentary Standing Committees which can be alleged to be privileged at the moment are sought for use by the federal government to attain brownie factors,” Tewari mentioned in a social media submit.“My colleague is appropriate; no particular proposal qua the current Service provider Low cost Fee – MDR to be levied on UPI transactions from October fifteenth, 2026, was ever introduced earlier than the Parliamentary standing committee of Finance – fee, quantum, quantity of charge to be charged, ceiling and exemption slabs, and so on.,” he added.He additionally mentioned that considerations have been raised by the Opposition over the necessity and efficacy of MDR on UPI funds throughout varied sittings of the committee.“Even on the precept or conceptual foundation of MDR as my colleague Gaurav Gogoi factors out considerations have been raised by members with regard to its want, efficacy, and so on., over the course of varied sittings of the committee,” Tewari mentioned.“To assert {that a} explicit measure was supported by ‘sure members’ of the committee is an inaccurate and fallacious characterisation of the confidential proceedings of a Parliamentary Committee,” he added.This comes a day after a authorities functionary claimed that Congress MPs, together with former finance minister P Chidambaram and former minister within the UPA authorities Manish Tewari, supported the federal government’s determination through the parliamentary panel’s proceedings.“Why is Rahul Gandhi opposing one thing his personal MPs, together with former finance minister P Chidambaram and former minister within the UPA authorities Manish Tewari, supported throughout the parliamentary panel?” information company PTI reported a functionary as saying.In accordance with the report of the standing committee headed by BJP MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, the panel famous its earlier suggestion emphasising that as a result of crucial of a viable income mannequin, legislative-enabling provisions for a tiered MDR construction have been introduced ahead.Nevertheless, the committee remained deeply involved by the staggering mismatch between the Rs 2,000-crore allocation and the business’s estimated operational value of Rs 20,700 crore.Within the view of the committee, whereas statutory enablement now exists to allow calibrated MDR on high-value transactions, any delay in notifying and operationalising this framework leaves cost service suppliers closely depending on insufficient subsidies, thereby threatening important investments in cybersecurity, fraud prevention and community infrastructure.
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On the inducement scheme for promotion of RuPay debit playing cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (person-to-merchant), the committee, in its report, noticed and advisable: “The Committee notes the huge Rs 2,000 crore budgetary allocation for 2026-27 designed to offset ecosystem prices attributable to the zero-MDR coverage on RuPay and low-value UPI transactions.“The Committee observes that whereas UPI is anticipated to course of as much as 150 billion transactions per thirty days and add 600 million new customers, the present authorities incentive covers merely 11% of the business’s precise prices and 14% of potential MDR collections, making a structural funding hole impacting long-term infrastructural funding.”The committee advisable that whereas the proposed three-year multi-year scheme and cashback parts are essential to democratise digital funds in untapped Tier 3-6 cities, the Division of Monetary Providers should concurrently discover a self-reliant, tiered income mannequin.