Mobile phone retailers to protest against UPI MDR charges on October 2
Mobile phone retailers in India are planning a 'No UPI Day' protest on October 2 to oppose the introduction of a 0.4% Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions. Retailers argue the fee will impose an unsustainable financial burden on small businesses.
Why it matters
The protest highlights the tension between the government's push for digital payment adoption and the economic impact of transaction fees on small-scale merchants.
Mobile phone retailers across India plan to observe October 2 as “No UPI Day” in protest against 0.4% Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charges on UPI transactions, a senior official of industry body AIMRA said.
Editorial | Complex priorities: On UPI transactions, MDR charges
The government has introduced a 0.4% fee on UPI transfers exceeding ₹2,000 to merchants from October 15, while exempting person-to-person transactions as well as small payments from any charges.
“The All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) has called for a ‘NO UPI DAY’ on October 2, 2026, to highlight the concerns of mobile retailers regarding the 0.4% Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) applicable to eligible merchant UPI transactions,” AIMRA Vice president and president for the Delhi NCR region, Tarvinder Singh, said in a statement.
He said retailers will symbolically cover UPI QR codes with black cloth and refrain from accepting UPI payments on Gandhi Jayanti.
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