New Delhi, Sept. 19 -- The Finance Ministry on Thursday rejected allegations that US pressure influenced the decision to introduce a 0.4 per cent Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on select UPI transactions, saying the latest National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) guidelines do not give international credit cards any advantage over RuPay on the UPI platform.

The Department of Financial Services (DFS), responding to observations in the US Trade Representative's (USTR) 2026 report, said the September 15 NPCI circular continues to allow only RuPay credit cards to be linked to UPI for credit transactions, PTI reported.

In a post on X, the DFS said, "The NPCI circular of September 15, 2026, does not allow credit transactions on UPI by any ...