AMN / NEW DELHI
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that no Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) will be applicable on transactions through homegrown RuPay and UPI platforms beginning 1st of January next year.
Ms Sitharaman announced this after meeting Chiefs of Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Chief executive of Indian Banks’ Association and representatives of leading private sector banks to discuss banking issues.
Department of Revenue (DoR) will soon notify RuPay and UPI as the prescribed mode of payment for digital transactions without any MDR. She said, now all companies with a turnover of 50 crore rupees or more will be mandated to provide the facility of payment through RuPay Debit card and UPI QR code to their customers. All banks will also start a campaign to popularise RuPay Debit card and UPI.
MDR is the cost paid by a merchant to a bank for accepting payment from their customers via digital means. The merchant discount rate is expressed in percentage of the transaction amount.
Besides, the Finance Minister also launched a common e-auction platform to sell attached assets of defaulters for improved realisation of value.
The platform is equipped with property search features and navigational links to all PSB e-auction sites. It provides a single-window access to information on properties for e-auction as well as facility for comparison of similar properties and also contains photographs and videos of uploaded properties.
As per latest data, a total of 35,000 properties have been uploaded on the platform by PSBs.
The Public Sector Banks have attached assets worth over 2.3 lakh crore rupees over the last three financial years. Ms Sitharaman said, to strengthen banks, in addition to the recent infusion of over 60 thousand crore rupees, additional infusion of 8,855 crore rupees has been approved and would be released shortly.
Of the total amount, 4,360 crore rupees will be released to Indian Overseas Bank, 2,153 crore rupees to Allahabad Bank, 2,142 crore rupees to UCO Bank and 200 crore rupees to Andhra Bank.
Bankers were assured that prudent commercial decision-making would be protected.
To allay any apprehensions in this regard and to take feedback, CBI Director also attended the meeting. It was decided that CBI would develop a mechanism as recently introduced for income tax notices so that CBI notices carry a registration number to avoid any scope for unauthorised communication and consequent harassment.
