OMR communities push back against UPI commercial levy
Resident welfare associations in Chennai are lobbying the government to exempt apartment maintenance fees from a new 0.4% UPI commercial levy. They argue that these payments are essential utility costs rather than commercial transactions and should be treated as such to avoid financial strain on residents.
Why it matters
The dispute highlights the tension between digital payment monetization strategies and the affordability of essential services for middle-class households.
The Federation of OMR Residents Associations (FOMRRA), representing over 250 high-density gated communities along Chennai’s IT Corridor, has joined hands with community governance platform ADDA (3Five8 Technologies) to formally submit a joint representation to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Ministry of Finance.
Backed by a national coalition representing approximately 2,00,000 housing societies and Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), the representation calls for apartment maintenance collections to be notified as an essential utility category eligible for a flat ₹5 Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions above ₹2,000, rejecting the proposed 0.4% commercial levy slated for 15 October 2026.
According to a press release, the coalition cautions that treating residential maintenance payments under standard commercial Person-to-Merchant (P2M) rules will severely penalise middle-class citizens, reverse years of digital payment adoption and impose an unsustainable overhead on non-profit communities.
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