Authors
An enthusiastic journalist, researcher and fact-checker, Shubham believes in maintaining the sanctity of facts and wants to create awareness about misinformation and its perils. Shubham has studied Mathematics at the Banaras Hindu University and holds a diploma in Hindi Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. He has worked in The Print, UNI and Inshorts before joining Newschecker.
Claim
Consumers will be taxed 1.1% surcharge for UPI Payments from April 1.
Fact
The Claim is Misleading. The general public will not have to pay any additional charges on UPI transactions.
Social media is abuzz with a viral claim alleging that starting April 1, users will be charged 1.1% for UPI payments exceeding ₹2000, using digital payment platforms such as Google Pay and Paytm.
The claim has been picked up by various media organizations, including ‘DNA India’ and One India, and has been widely circulated on social media.
Screengrabs of news articles that reported that consumers would have to pay 1.1% surcharge on UPI transactions.
Archive link of these post can be seen here and here.
UPI has become a popular payment option for the general public, with transactions increasing by 50% over the past year reaching over ₹36 crores per day.
However, amid this surge in UPI payments, rumours have emerged that a 1.1% surcharge will be imposed on transactions exceeding ₹2000.
Karnataka Congress Seva Dal and Several social media users have also shared the viral claim.
Fact Check/Verification
Will users incur additional charges when making UPI transactions?
According to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), users will not be charged for UPI transactions.
On March 29, NPCI released a circular via a tweet, stating that no charges would be applied to peer-to-peer and peer-to-peer-merchant transactions between bank accounts and PPIs.
Paytm has also refuted the claims of charges, stating in a tweet on the same day that “no customer will have to pay any charge for making UPI payment from a bank account or PPI/Paytm Wallet.”
This means that if a user pays Rs 2500 to a person or shopkeeper using the bank account payment option, no charge will be incurred. PPI, or Prepaid Paid Instrument, is a digital wallet that allows consumers to store money. Companies such as Paytm and Phone Pay offer the PPI option. Furthermore, a tweet from PIB Fact Check on March 29 also denied the viral claim.
Will the general public have to pay a charge for doing wallet transactions?
As per the NPCI circular, there will not be any charge for the general public, even for conducting wallet transactions.
Here’s an example to help you understand this: suppose you visit a petrol pump where the State Bank of India (SBI) has set up a QR code to accept payments. You purchase petrol worth Rs. 3000 and pay for it using your Paytm wallet by scanning the QR code. In this case, SBI will have to pay Paytm an interchange fee of 0.5% of Rs. 3000. However, you won’t have to pay anything extra from your wallet. This fee is a matter between the shopkeeper and his bank, and won’t be charged to you.
The fee that SBI (acquirer) has to pay to Paytm (PPI/issuer) is called an interchange fee.
What is the interchange fee and how much is to be paid?
Interchange fees are charges paid by payment service providers (like banks) to other payment platforms (like digital wallets such as Paytm or Amazon Pay) for using infrastructure provided by the (second) payment service provider. As per the recent NPCI circular, this fee has been fixed in the range of 0.5% to 1.1%.
The interchange fee depends on what you are paying for with the UPI wallet.
The interchange fee for categories like fuel, education, and agriculture is 0.5-0.7%, while on the other hand, the interchange fee for food, specialty retail shops etc, is a maximum of 1.1%.
Who will benefit from this?
UPI users now have more payment options available to them, according to a report by CNBC TV18. Users can use their Paytm wallet to pay at a store without extra charges, even by scanning a PhonePe QR code. This means merchants can accept payments from different wallets used by customers, bringing all UPI transactions together under one umbrella.
Conclusion
Thus, it becomes clear in our investigation that from April 1, users will not have to pay a charge of 1.1% for making more than 2000 UPI payments. Misleading claim being shared. The general public will not have to pay any additional charges on UPI transactions.
Result: Missing Context
Our Sources
Tweet by NPCI on March 29, 2023
Tweet by Paytm Payments Bank on March 29, 2023
Tweet by PIB on March 29, 2023
Report Published by CNBC TV18 on March 29, 2023
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Authors
An enthusiastic journalist, researcher and fact-checker, Shubham believes in maintaining the sanctity of facts and wants to create awareness about misinformation and its perils. Shubham has studied Mathematics at the Banaras Hindu University and holds a diploma in Hindi Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. He has worked in The Print, UNI and Inshorts before joining Newschecker.
