Government is ‘surrendering to American pressure’ with UPI charges, Rahul Gandhi alleges; Kharge terms it ‘loot’

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday (September 15, 2026) accused the Narendra Modi government of opening the door to charges on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions, with Mr. Gandhi alleging that the move was the result of the government “surrendering to American pressure”.

The government’s “loot” had now reached UPI, Mr. Kharge said, while Mr. Gandhi alleged that a recent notification had quietly paved the way for imposing a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on merchant transactions above ₹2,000.

“‘No fees on UPI’ has been changed to ‘no fees on UPI transactions up to ₹2,000’,” Mr. Kharge said in a post in Hindi on social media platform X, alleging that the government was planning to impose a “Digital Payments Tax” on the public when inflation had already squeezed household savings.

Mr. Kharge questioned the government’s decision against the backdrop of the Centre’s earlier emphasis on digital payments after demonetisation. He also referred to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent statement in Parliament that no tax or charges would be levied on UPI transactions, and asked whether reports of a possible ₹25 charge on a ₹5,000 transaction, and up to ₹50 on a ₹10,000 transaction, were correct.

The government had provided that MDR could be levied on merchant UPI transactions above ₹2,000, Mr. Gandhi said. The government says customers will not be charged, he said, but asked where the cost imposed on merchants would ultimately come from. “Added to the prices, straight out of the customer’s pocket,” Mr. Gandhi said.

American payment companies had long opposed India’s zero-MDR policy, and the government had now opened the way for changing it, he also alleged. “Just like with the U.S. Trade Deal, compromised PM Modi is once again surrendering to American pressure,” Mr. Gandhi said.

Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said the notification under the amended Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 prohibited banks and payment system providers from charging for UPI transactions of up to ₹2,000 but did not provide explicit protection for transactions above that threshold.

“Just as we warned on August 6, 2026, to which the Hon’ble FM (Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman) herself had deemed it fit to respond, the Modi government is now using new laws bulldozed through Parliament to start the process of charging for UPI,” Mr. Ramesh said. 

“The stage is clearly being set for all of us to pay a fee for UPI transactions,” Mr. Ramesh said, adding, “Tomorrow, the cap itself might be changed with another such notification — there is no longer a guarantee in the law. For all we know, the government can introduce a charge for daily person-to-person transactions as well.”