Congress rejects claim that party MPs backed UPI fee

The Congress on Thursday (September 17, 2026) accused the Modi government of trying to use the proceedings of a Parliamentary Standing Committee to defend its decision to impose a Merchant Discount Rate on high-value UPI transactions, saying the specific proposal had neither been placed before nor endorsed by the panel.

The Opposition party’s response came after the government sought to cite the Finance Committee’s earlier deliberations on the Merchant Discount Rate, and the presence of Congress MPs when its report was adopted, to counter the political backlash over the new UPI charges. Discussions on the broad principle of a Merchant Discount Rate could not be construed as approval of the measure announced by the government, the Congress said.

The government was seeking to divert attention from the opposition to the new charges, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said.