"Fallacious": Congress MP On Claim That Party MPs Did Not Dissent On UPI Tax

Countering the charge that Congress MPs did not dissent when a parliamentary panel pressed for charges on certain business transactions via UPI in August, Gaurav Gogoi, who attended the meeting, said there was "no specific proposal on UPI tax when they met the members of the Finance Committee".

Five Congress MPs - Gaurav Gogoi, P Chidambaram, Manish Tewari Kishori Lal and K Gopinath - attended the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance in August.

Read | New UPI Charges: If Digital Payments Save Money, Why Charge For Them Now?

Reportedly, the committee called for a tiered Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) framework on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions, with sources claiming that the Congress MPs present at the August 12 meeting did not record their dissent as seen in the published minutes.

According to the report of the standing committee headed by BJP MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, the panel noted its earlier recommendation emphasising that due to the imperative of a viable revenue model, legislative-enabling provisions for a tiered MDR structure have been brought forward.

Read | Risk Of India Returning To Cash Economy: Retailers' Body On UPI Fee

However, the committee remained deeply concerned by the staggering mismatch between the Rs 2,000-crore allocation and the industry's estimated operational cost of Rs 20,700 crore.

Ending nearly six years of fully free UPI payments, the Centre on Tuesday introduced a 0.4 per cent fee on transfers worth more than Rs 2,000 made to merchants through the platform from October 15, while ring-fencing person-to-person transactions as well as small payments from any charge.

The charge will be borne by merchants, not consumers, and will be capped at Rs 300 for transactions of Rs 75,000 or more, according to the new framework. Person-to-person UPI transfers and merchant transactions of up to Rs 2,000 will remain free.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which operates the UPI network, introduced in 2016, said the revenue will support investment in infrastructure resilience, cybersecurity, fraud prevention, innovation and customer service.

NPCI has said industry estimates put the annual cost of operating UPI - servers, bandwidth, fraud prevention and bank technical support - at roughly Rs 20,000 crore a year. The Department of Financial Services separately told Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance that the payments industry spends about Rs 20,700 crore annually on P2M transactions alone.

Read | Decision On UPI Charges A Considered One, Will Not Be Rolled Back: Sources

A parliamentary committee report in March flagged that the absence of an MDR was making UPI financially difficult to sustain.

The UPI model has also been exported, operating in at least eight countries, including neighbouring Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, as well as the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, France and Qatar. India has signed agreements with more than 20 other countries for cooperation on its UPI system.

Two of the five Congress MPs - Gaurav Gogoi and Manish Tewari - are disputing the charge that they agreed to the Finance Committee's proposal.

"The Parliament Standing Committee on Finance has not discussed the UPI tax proposal that the Modi government has recently announced. The Department of Finance did not have any specific proposal on UPI tax when they met the members of the Finance Committee," Gaurav Gogoi, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, posted on X on Thursday morning.

The Parliament Standing Committee on Finance has not discussed the UPI tax proposal that the Modi government has recently announced.

The Department of Finance did not have any specific proposal on UPI tax when they met the members of the Finance Committee.

Questions were… https://t.co/V20yu3qmMm

— Gaurav Gogoi (@GauravGogoiAsm) September 17, 2026

"Questions were raised on the need for MDR but the representatives of the government did not have any specific or satisfactory answers at that point," the Congress MP said, alleging that the move helps the major American corporations and urged the Prime Minister to roll back the tax.

"Stop surrendering, PM Modi," the MP said.

The Congress is claiming that the Union government has succumbed to US demands by removing the zero Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) regime for UPI transactions to benefit American card networks. The US Trade Representative earlier this year had criticised UPI for being free and having driven out Visa and Mastercard.

Manish Tewari, who was also present at the meeting, has backed Gaurav Gogoi and disputed the version that the party was amenable to the idea of UPI tax.

It is unfortunate that proceedings of Parliamentary Standing Committees that are supposed to be privileged are now sought to be used by the government to score brownie points .

My colleague @GauravGogoiAsm is correct no specific proposal qua the recent Merchant Discount Rate… https://t.co/wAeHURPWwO

— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) September 17, 2026

"My colleague @GauravGogoiAsm is correct no specific proposal qua the recent Merchant Discount Rate -MDR to be levied on UPI transactions from October 15 th 2026 was ever brought before the Parliamentary standing of Finance- rate, quantum, amount of fee to be charged, ceiling and exemption slabs etc," Tewari said, terming it "unfortunate" that the government is using the proceedings of Parliamentary Standing Committees to score "brownie points".

"Even on the principle or conceptual basis of MDR as my colleague @GauravGogoiAsm points out concerns were raised by members with regard to its need , efficacy etc over the course various sittings of the Committee. To claim that a particular measure was supported by 'certain members' of the committee is an inaccurate and fallacious characterisation of the confidential proceedings of a Parliamentary Committee," the Congress MP added.

Joining the offensive, Congress General Secretary and MP Randeep Singh Surjewala said that September 14 will be remembered as a "day of digital somersault," alleging that the Centre's decision to permit charges on UPI transactions exceeding Rs 2,000 constitutes a "betrayal" of ordinary citizens.

The finance ministry clarified on Wednesday that there was no foreign influence behind the decision to impose a 0.4 per cent MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) on UPI transactions above Rs 2,000.

Read | "No Foreign Influence": On UPI Charges, Centre Trashes Opposition's Claim

"Some claims suggest the change is due to foreign influence. This is false. India's UPI policy decisions are made independently, with the clear goal of building a self-sustaining, inclusive, and affordable digital payments ecosystem," the finance ministry said in a post on X.

Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said huge volumes of transactions happen through UPI, and PM Modi has once again decided to take money out of people's pockets.