NPCI sets new charges starting April 1
Benaluru:- The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has set the inter-change fee at 1.1% for merchant transactions initiated using a prepaid payment Instrument (PPI) such as mobile wallets on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) network.
The changes take effect from April 1, according to a circular by NPCI dated March 24. The circular is not in the public domain yet. ET has reviewed a copy of the circular. An interchange fee is a cost paid for accepting and processing online transactions. While the 1.1% broad interchange is applicable to transactions over Rs 2,000 in value, NPCI has set different merchant fee structures for PPI payments on UPI, varying as per the industry.
Some merchant categories across the agriculture and telecom sectors are also subject to a lower interchange fee.
“Interchange shall not be applicable to P2P (peer to peer) and P2M (peer to merchant) transactions between “bank account and the PPI wallet,” according to the NPCI circular.
Payment firms including Paytm who received the circular last week quickly implemented full interoperability and have allowed their customers to pay UPI quick response (QR) codes through their mobile wallets.
NPCI operates the UPI payment railroad.