New Delhi, Sept. 17 -- The Finance Ministry on Thursday (September 17) rejected allegations that US pressure influenced the decision to introduce a 0.4% Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on select UPI transactions, saying the latest NPCI guidelines do not provide any advantage to international credit cards over RuPay on the UPI platform.

The Department of Financial Services (DFS) issued the clarification in response to observations in the US Trade Representative's (USTR) 2026 report, which raised concerns over the inability of US electronic payment service providers to participate in India's UPI ecosystem, including credit transactions on UPI, on a level playing field with RuPay.

The DFS said the NPCI circular issued on September 15 does not...