New Delhi, Oct. 3 -- The Centre will impose Merchant discount rate (MDR) charge on select online transactions conducted under the unified payments interface (UPI) system in India from this month, as per the National Payments Council of India (NPCI).

The NPCI in an announcement has month said that MDR would apply on person-to-merchant (P2M) UPI payments, above a certain threshold, under a revised UPI MDR framework. The rules come into effect from mid-October and keeping UPI free for all customer (person-to-person / P2P) transactions.

MDR charge will apply on each P2M UPI transaction above Rs.2,000, with effect from 15 October 2026, according to the NPCI statement.

The rules keep 95% of low-value UPI transactions below Rs.2,000 and small...