India Moves to End Free UPI Merchant Payments, Scrapping Zero-MDR Rule

India's Finance Ministry has introduced legislation to scrap the zero-merchant-discount-rate provision governing UPI since January 2020. The bill creates legal authority for merchant fees on the payments network that processed a record 23.66 billion transactions in July 2026. It imposes no charges itself; rates, thresholds, and merchant categories are left to subsequent rule-making.