New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) : Congress leader Supriya Shrinate on Wednesday said it was “bound to happen” as reports said that some shops in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk market have stopped accepting UPI payments, noting that people are unlikely to pay additional charges from their own pocket.
Speaking to IANS, Shrinate said: “This is bound to happen; this will happen. Because people are not going to pay extra money out of their own pockets. Today, this has happened in Chandni Chowk; tomorrow, it will happen across Delhi, and eventually across the country.”
She said that if additional charges are imposed on UPI transactions, customers may choose to make payments in cash instead.
“The UPI system that was created — if you have to pay extra money, you will pay it or you won’t. You will stop and pay in cash. The problem is that when demonetisation happened, cash was demonised. At that time, there was Rs 17 lakh crore in cash in the economy. Today, it is more than Rs 40 lakh crore, which is more than two and a half times higher,” she said.
Shrinate further questioned the government’s intentions and policies, alleging that its decisions were being influenced by US companies.
“We don’t understand the intentions and policy of the government. They don’t know what they are doing. They are doing this for the benefit of US companies and working under their pressure,” she told IANS.
On Monday, the government announced that banks cannot impose charges on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions of up to Rs 2,000.
According to a government gazette notification, no charges can be imposed on payments of up to Rs 2,000 made through RuPay-powered debit cards either.
The Finance Ministry on Wednesday debunked claims which suggested the MDR change in the UPI ecosystem is due to foreign influence, stressing that India’s digital payments decisions are made independently.
