Retailers up the ante against revised merchant discount rates

Plan to lobby with the RBI & government, threaten protest

After hitting out at the government on social media, retailers are gearing up to protest against revised merchant discount rates (MDRs) for debit card transactions.
 
MDR is the rate charged to a merchant by a bank for providing debit card transaction service. On Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) changed the basis of MDR as per the category of a merchant from the existing rule for the charges to be based on size of transactions. The RBI has increased MDR for all organised retailers to 0.9 per cent for point of sale (POS) transactions up to Rs 2,000,