Congress rejects claim that party MPs backed UPI fee

The Congress on Thursday (September 17, 2026) accused the Modi government of trying to use the proceedings of a Parliamentary Standing Committee to defend its decision to impose a Merchant Discount Rate on high-value UPI transactions, saying the specific proposal had neither been placed before nor endorsed by the panel.

The Opposition party’s response came after the government sought to cite the Finance Committee’s earlier deliberations on the Merchant Discount Rate, and the presence of Congress MPs when its report was adopted, to counter the political backlash over the new UPI charges. Discussions on the broad principle of a Merchant Discount Rate could not be construed as approval of the measure announced by the government, the Congress said.

The government was seeking to divert attention from the opposition to the new charges, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said.

“These are pathetic attempts being made by the Modi Govt to divert attention away from the gigantic backlash generated after the UPI tax decision taken to appease US companies & Donaldbhai,” Mr. Ramesh said in a post on social media platform X.

It was “unfortunate” that the proceedings of parliamentary committees, which are privileged, were being used by the government to “score brownie points”, Congress MP Manish Tewari said. No specific proposal relating to the Merchant Discount Rate announced for UPI transactions from October 15 — including the rate, quantum, fee, ceiling, or exemption slabs — had been placed before the committee, he said.

Members had also raised concerns over the need and efficacy of the Merchant Discount Rate during the committee’s deliberations, Mr. Tewari said. To describe the measure as having been supported by “certain members”, he said, was an “inaccurate and fallacious characterisation” of confidential committee proceedings.

The Finance Committee had not discussed the UPI proposal recently announced by the government, Congress’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi said. “The Department of Finance did not have any specific proposal on UPI tax when they met the members of the Finance Committee,” Mr. Gogoi said.

Questions had been raised about the need for the Merchant Discount Rate, but government representatives had not provided specific or satisfactory answers at the time, he added. Mr. Gogoi reiterated the Congress’s demand for withdrawal of the policy, saying it would hurt small merchants, vendors, and entrepreneurs while benefiting major American corporations.