GoKawiilNPCI postpones 0.4% UPI merchant fee until after Diwali
India's National Payments Corporation has delayed its planned October 15 introduction of a 0.4% fee on UPI merchant transactions above ₹2,000, citing the festive shopping season. NPCI did not announce a new date for the rollout. The fee, first announced last month, had drawn opposition from retailers and petrol station operators, some of whom threatened to stop accepting UPI payments.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The delay suggests NPCI is wary of disrupting transaction volumes during India's peak shopping period, when merchant cooperation is critical to UPI's dominance. It also highlights the tension between keeping UPI free to sustain adoption and making the system commercially viable for payment providers like Google Pay and PhonePe. How retailers respond once a new date is set could determine whether India's years-long zero-fee policy for UPI merchants is truly coming to an end.
- NPCI postponed the October 15 rollout of a 0.4% fee on UPI transactions over ₹2,000, without setting a new date.
- Retailers and petrol pump operators had pushed back, some threatening to stop accepting UPI payments.
- UPI processed 24.07 billion transactions worth about $305 billion in September alone, underscoring the stakes of any fee change.
Source: techcrunch.com — Jagmeet Singh, 2026-10-13
Published there as: “India delays digital payments fee rollout amid retailer pushback”
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