Congress denies MPs backed UPI fee, calls it a 'news plantation economy'
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Congress denies MPs backed UPI fee, calls it a 'news plantation economy'")
Representational Image Photograph: (ANI)
Congress denies its MPs backed the new UPI fee, saying the Finance panel did not discuss the specific charge on merchant payments above ₹2,000.
The Congress on Thursday denied claims that its MPs on the parliamentary standing committee on Finance had backed the decision to levy a fee on high-value UPI payments. A senior government functionary said that when the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance had adopted a report on the MDR revenue framework for the UPI, five Congress MPs, including P Chidambaram, Manish Tewari, Gaurav Gogoi, Kishori Lal and K Gopinath, were present and no dissent was recorded in the published minutes, as reported by the PTI.
The government functionary added, “Why is Rahul Gandhi opposing something his own MPs, including former finance minister P Chidambaram and former minister in the UPA government Manish Tewari, supported within the parliamentary panel?”
However, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said that the finance committee did not discuss the specific UPI tax proposal announced by the government recently. He said when they met, the members of the Department of Finance did not have any proposal on the UPI tax. He also added that questions were raised on the need for MDR, but government representatives did not have specific or satisfactory answers at that stage.
In a social media post, Gogoi said, “I reiterate that the recent UPI tax policies hurt small Indian merchants, vendors, entrepreneurs and help the major American corporations. Roll back UPI tax. Stop surrendering, PM Modi.”
Congress MP Manish Tiwari also criticised the government, “Unfortunately, proceedings of parliamentary standing committees that are supposed to be privileged are now sought to be used by the government to score brownie points.”
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Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said the information of support from Congress MPs was a product of a “news plantation economy”, and said that it was a “pathetic” attempt to divert attention from the "gigantic backlash" over the "UPI tax" decision taken to "appease US companies and Donaldbhai".
Why is Rahul Gandhi linking UPI fee to Washington?
Rahul Gandhi had criticised the government's decision to impose the fee on UPI payments above Rs 2,000 made to merchants. He accused PM Modi of having decided to “prostrate” before US President Donald Trump and give a large amount of money to the US. The US government and American corporations have actively pressured India for nearly a decade to dismantle its zero MDR policy, as since UPI's launch, Visa and Mastercard have faced potential loss of business as consumers preferred free UPI payments instead of cards 2 per cent per transaction.
The Union Government on September 14-15 announced the UPI Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) framework for certain person-to- merchant transactions. It also said that there is no separate GST on MDR. It later clarified that the MDR introduced under any external influence is patently "false and misleading". Market experts have criticised the framework for putting strain on small and Medium Businesses, as well as the increased cost being trickled down to the consumers. According to ANI, the government is optimistic that UPI transactions are unlikely to fall after the rollout on October 15.
