President Donald Trump and demanded an immediate rollback of the decision.
Mounting a sharp attack on the Narendra Modi government over the introduction of a charge on certain UPI transactions, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday (September 16, 2026) accused the Prime Minister of “prostrating” before U.S.
‘Policy failure’
In a video posted on X, Mr. We are the ball. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate rejected the government’s position, saying the move would ultimately increase costs for ordinary users.
Ramesh said, questioning why the rate had been fixed at 0.4% and whether the move was intended to enable U.S. card companies to compete with UPI. Under the decision announced on Tuesday (September 15, 2026), a 0.4% fee will apply to merchant transactions above ₹2,000 from October 15, while person-to-person transactions and small payments will remain free. She said a ₹5,000 transaction would attract a ₹20 fee and a ₹10,000 transaction a ₹40 fee, and alleged that the decision had been taken at the behest of American companies.
Gandhi said Mr. Modi had “decided to lie down straight and prostrate himself in front of Donald Trump”, and accused the government of imposing a “UPI tax” on Indians to give “a huge amount of money” to the United States. “Here, the Modi government has given into a U.S. demand to get rid of zero MDR and charge for UPI,” Mr. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, reacting to the U.S. tariff legislation, said the threat of higher tariffs showed that the government’s foreign and trade policies had “miserably failed”. Earlier, Congress media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said: “We are not playing ball with America and China. The government, however, said the new MDR is not a charge on consumers.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said the U.S.
Trade Representative had earlier criticised UPI for being free and for having displaced card companies such as Visa and Mastercard.
