UPI will be free The Finance Ministry on Sunday said that UPI will remain free and the government is not contemplating imposing any charge on it. Earlier, it was rumored whether the Modi-led central government would bring in a rule whereby users would have to pay on every UPI transaction.
In a tweet on Sunday evening, the Finance Ministry said: “UPI is a digital public good with immense convenience for the public and productivity benefits for the economy. There is no thought in the government to levy any charges for UPI services. The service providers will have to meet other means for the recovery.
“The government provided financial support for the #DigitalPayment ecosystem last year and this year also announced the same to promote the adoption of #DigitalPayments and promote affordable and user-friendly payment platforms,” the ministry said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier lauded the achievement of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions crossing 6 billion in July – the highest since its launch six years ago.
According to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI reported 6.28 billion transactions worth Rs 10.62 trillion in July – a 7 per cent increase over June.
In a tweet, Modi said, “This is an outstanding achievement. It indicates the collective resolve of the people of India to adopt new technologies and make the economy cleaner. Digital payments were especially helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic.” “
In FY22, UPI processed over 46 billion transactions amounting to over Rs 84.17 trillion, thus crossing the $1 trillion mark.
UPI aims to process one billion transactions a day in the next five years. The UPI facility was launched on 11 April 2016 by the then Governor of Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan.
Read also: PM Modi lauds UPI transactions that crossed record 6 billion in July