Mobile retailers to mark October 2 as 'No UPI Day' over 0.4% MDR charges

Mobile phone retailers across India will observe October 2 as "No UPI Day" to press their opposition to the 0.4% Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) being applied to eligible merchant UPI transactions, the All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) has said.

As part of the symbolic action planned for Gandhi Jayanti, retailers intend to drape black cloth over their UPI QR codes and stop accepting UPI payments for the day.

AIMRA vice-president and Delhi NCR president Tarvinder Singh said the protest is aimed at drawing attention to the financial strain the charge places on merchants who accept digital payments. The association has conveyed its concerns to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a representation.

The government has proposed a 0.4% fee on UPI transfers above ₹2,000 to merchants from October 15. Person-to-person transfers and small payments have been kept outside the ambit of the charge.

According to AIMRA's estimates, a small retailer handling ₹5 lakh to ₹30 lakh in monthly UPI turnover would lose between ₹2,000 and ₹12,000 a month, a sum the body says would absorb a significant share of net income. The association puts the aggregate burden on small mobile retailers at roughly ₹40 crore a month, or close to ₹500 crore a year.

Mr. Singh framed the campaign as a defence of affordable digital payments rather than an attack on UPI or on the Digital India programme. He said merchant payments should continue under a zero-MDR structure if the retail ecosystem is to keep adopting digital modes.

"If we want Digital India, UPI must remain zero MDR," he said, adding that the demand is for UPI merchant payments to stay free of the charge.