Mobile phone retailers across the country are planning to observe ‘No UPI Day’ on October 2 to protest the imposition of 0.4 percent merchant discount rate (MDR) fee on UPI transactions. A senior official of industry body AIMRA said no UPI transactions will be done on October 2. Let us tell you that from October 15, businesses will have to pay a 0.4 percent fee on UPI transactions above Rs 2000. While there will be no fee on UPI transactions between two persons (P2P) and small payments.
“AIMRA has called for a ‘No UPI Day’ on October 2, 2026 to highlight the concerns of mobile retailers regarding the 0.4 percent MDR levied on UPI transactions,” All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) Vice President and Delhi-NCR President Tarvinder Singh said in a statement. He said that to mark ‘Gandhi Jayanthi’, retailers will symbolically cover the UPI QR code with a black cloth and refrain from accepting UPI payments.
According to a memorandum sent by AIMRA to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the imposition of MDR on UPI will result in a net loss of Rs 2,000 to 12,000 to small retailers who transact Rs 5 to 30 lakh through UPI every month. This will wipe out a significant portion of their net income. The Mobile Retailers’ Association estimates that the 0.4 percent MDR will impose an unbearable burden of around Rs 40 crore per month and around Rs 500 crore annually on small mobile retailers across the country.
Tarvinder Singh said, “If we want a digital India, MDR on UPI should remain zero. This is not against UPI or Digital India. Our concern is only about the additional financial burden on merchants accepting digital payments. Our clear demand is that UPI should continue under the ‘zero MDR’ framework.”