Merchant discount rate on UPI-RuPay credit cards likely to be 2%

NPCI set to seek RBI nod for scheme; free swipes at smaller outlets

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and banks have hammered out the contours of the pricing of credit-card transactions on the RuPay-Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

In talks held last week, the consensus veered to a merchant discount rate (MDR) — the charge paid by merchants to the card-issuing bank for card transactions — of 2 per cent. Of this, 1.5 per cent will go towards the issuing bank, with the rest (50 basis points) being shared with RuPay and the acquiring entity.

This can be a bank or players like Mswipe or Paytm. At outlets with an annual turnover of