‘There is no charge to customers’, NPCI clarifies on charges on UPI transactions

National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) via its official Twitter handle has issued a statement clarifying that there is no charge to customers. As per the rule, the interchange charges are applicable for Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI). This means that UPI transactions made via PPIs such as wallets, credit cards will have an interchange fee of 1.1%. 

Additionally, there are no charges for the bank account to bank account based UPI payments i.e. normal UPI payments. “With this addition to UPI, the customers will have the choice of using any bank accounts, Rupay Credit card and prepaid wallets on UPI enabled apps,” NPCI’s Twitter post further clarifies.

“UPI is free, fast, secure and seamless. Every month, over 8 billion transactions are processed free for customers and merchants using bank-accounts,” NPCI says.

Here’s the full statement as issued by NPCI

In the recent times, UPI has emerged as preferred mode of digital payment by offering free, fast, secure and seamless experience. Traditionally. the most preferred method of UPI transactions is linking the Bank account in any UPI enabled app for making payments which contributes over 99.9% of total UPI transactions. These Bank account-to-account transactions continue to remain free for Customers and Merchants. 

Recent regulatory guidelines, the Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI Wallets) have been permitted to be part of interoperable UPI ecosystem. In view of this NPCI has now permitted the PPI wallets to be part of interoperable UPI ecosystem. The interchange charges introduced are only applicable for the PPI merchant transactions and there is no charge to customers. and it is further clarified that there are no charges for the bank account to bank account based UPI payments (i.e. normal UPI payments). 

With this addition to UPI, the Customers will have the choice of using any bank accounts, Rupay Credit card and prepaid wallets on UPI enabled apps.