MDR waiver to hit fintechs, payments companies' business model

Industry fears the move to drag the growth of digital payments

Raising strong concerns over the government’s move to scrap merchant discount rate (MDR) charges on the transactions done via UPI and RuPay payment systems, the Payments Council of India (PCI) has said the move will have a catastrophic effect on payments companies and make their business model unviable.

According to the PCI, if the government wants to promote digital payments in the country, then a lower controlled MDR along with added tax benefits to merchants would be the solution. 

MDR is the rate charged to a merchant for digital payment processing services leveraged on debit and credit card transactions. It