UPI Incentive Scheme: The central government has extended the incentive scheme for one year to promote Unified Payment Interface (UPI). This scheme will continue till 31 March 2026 and under this the government will spend about Rs 1,500 crore.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that under this scheme, small shopkeepers will get 0.15% incentives on the Person-to-Cracha (P2M) transactions up to Rs 2,000 made through Rupay Debit Card and BHIM-UPI.
Person-to-Cracha (P2M) transaction means when a customer pays a shopkeeper through UPI. The scheme is effective from 1 April 2021 and is aimed at promoting Rupay Debit Card. This decision will directly affect global payment companies, visas and master cards.
If a customer buys goods worth Rs 2,000 and pays through UPI, then the shopkeeper will get an incentive of Rs 3. Apart from this, banks will also be given incentives.
The government will pay 80% of the claims filed by the banks immediately, while the remaining 20% will be given when the bank's technical fault will be less than 0.75% and the bank's system uptime is more than 99.5%.
The government will give a certain percentage of the value of transactions made through Rupay and BHIM-UPI systems to banks.
Acquisition banks are banks or financial institutions that process credit or debit cards for shopkeepers.
To promote digital payment, the government is targeting to complete 20,000 crore transactions in 2025-26. Also, emphasis will be laid on increasing the use of UPI in small towns and villages.
Earlier, the merchant discount rate (MDR) on Rupay Debit Card and BHIM-UPI transactions was reduced to zero. Now this new incentive scheme will give shopkeepers more boost to accept UPI payment.
The Union Minister said, “UPI payment is easy, safe and fast for shopkeepers. Also, money directly reaches their bank account without any additional fee.”
