'PM has redefined NOTA -- Narendra's Ongoing Trump Appeasement': Cong after UPI move

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday, September 16, accused the government of giving into a US demand to get rid of zero MDR and charge for UPI, and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "redefined NOTA - Narendra's Ongoing Trump Appeasement".

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh also asked whether the government move on Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) was done to enable US card companies to compete with UPI.

He said that tomorrow, the US House of Representatives votes on a Bill that introduces 100% tariffs on India.

The US Senate has already approved this draconian law, he pointed out.

The Trump regime has also been cracking down on Indian immigrants and making tougher laws against them, Ramesh said on X.

H-1B visa costs have been increased and such holders could soon be deported immediately when out of a job, he said, adding such holders are mostly IT professionals.

"Here, the Modi government has given into a US demand to get rid of zero MDR and charge for UPI. The U.S. Trade Representative earlier this year criticized UPI for being free and having driven out Visa and Mastercard," Ramesh said.

"Why 0.4% MDR? Is it because debit card MDR is also 0.4%? Is this being done to enable US card companies to compete with UPI?" he said.

Is this going to make UPI "sustainable" as the government claims, the Congress leader asked.

Noting that the estimated cost of running the entire UPI ecosystem is around Rs 20,000 crore annually, Ramesh said this is less than 10% of what the RBI has been transferring to the Union government in the past few years so as to show healthy public finances for the Modi government.

"The PM has redefined NOTA - Narendra's Ongoing Trump Appeasement," Ramesh said.

In another post, Ramesh also termed the MDR move as "2017 GST Redux".

His remarks come a day after the government 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 explicitly ring-fencing everyday person-to-person transactions as well as small payments from any charge.

"Customers will not be required to pay any charge when making such payments through UPI," the finance ministry said in a statement, adding, "MDR is a charge within the merchant payment ecosystem. It is not a charge on customers making UPI payments."

Also, individuals will continue to have "unlimited free usage, with no monthly quotas, volume restrictions or tiered caps on free UPI transactions", it said.

The carefully calibrated move signalled the end of an era for the world's largest real-time payments system even as the government tried to avoid alarming the hundreds of millions of daily users.

The move has invited sharp criticism from the opposition parties.

The Congress has termed as "Modi tax" the government's move on UPI transactions with Rahul Gandhi alleging that Prime Minister Modi was "compromised" and "once again surrendering" to American pressure.

The BJP hit back, accusing the Congress of spreading "fake news", saying the government had made it absolutely clear that MDR charges would not be levied on consumers.