UPI to remain free: The Finance Ministry on Sunday said that UPI would remain free and that the government is not considering levying any charges on it. Earlier, there was a rumour on whether the Modi-led union government would come up with a rule, wherein users will have to pay on every UPI transaction.
In a tweet on Sunday evening, the Finance Ministry said: "UPI is a digital public good with immense convenience for the public and productivity gains for the economy. There is no consideration in Govt to levy any charges for UPI services. The concerns of the service providers for cost recovery have to be met through other means.
"The Govt had provided financial support for #DigitalPayment ecosystem last year and has announced the same this year as well to encourage further adoption of #DigitalPayments and promotion of payment platforms that are economical and user-friendly," the ministry added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier hailed the achievement of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions crossing 6 billion in July -- the highest ever since its launch six years back.
According to data released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), UPI reported 6.28 billion transactions worth Rs 10.62 trillion in July -- an increase of 7 per cent over June.
"This is an outstanding accomplishment. It indicates the collective resolve of the people of India to embrace new technologies and make the economy cleaner. Digital payments were particularly helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic," Modi said in a tweet.
In FY22, UPI processed more than 46 billion transactions amounting to over Rs 84.17 trillion, thus breaching the $1 trillion mark.
UPI's target is to process a billion transactions a day in the next five years. The UPI facility was launched on April 11, 2016, by then Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan.
Also Read: PM Modi lauds UPI transactions crossing record 6 billion in July
