September 16, 2026

Press Release

Government Must Keep UPI Free: CPI

The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India issued the following statement today (September 16, 2026):

Charges on UPI usage, a publicly developed payment technology, are deeply unfortunate and have been brought under US pressure. The government is claiming that consumers will not be charged but experience shows that merchants always find ways to pass new costs on to consumers. The exercise is also illogical. There is no additional processing cost simply because a payment is of ₹10 or ₹10,000. NPCI is a cash-rich institution, with substantial cash and investments, and has paid crores of rupees in taxes to the government. There is no justification for turning a public digital payment system into a fee-generating mechanism that ultimately burdens consumers.

The context of this decision cannot be ignored. The US Trade Representative has explicitly objected to India’s UPI and zero-MDR framework, identifying India’s digital payment policies as a trade barrier because they favour domestic payment systems and disadvantage American payment companies. Companies such as Visa and Mastercard have a direct interest in expanding card payments and making UPI and RuPay less attractive. Transactions above ₹2,000 account for around 65% of the total value of UPI merchant transactions and this is precisely the segment now being subjected to charges. The Modi government has yet again caved in to US pressure instead of defending India’s interests.

PM Modi has repeatedly projected UPI as a symbol of digital India and surrendering its autonomy in foreign pressure is a blot on our own digital sovereignty. This will ultimately burden merchants and consumers while serving the commercial interests of foreign payment corporations. The Modi government has already handed over a huge share of India’s digital payments ecosystem to the Walmart-owned PhonePe and the Alphabet-owned Google Pay, which together process nearly 80% of UPI transactions. Instead of making these giant corporations pay for their enormous use of public digital infrastructure and generating billions in revenue, the government has chosen to burden merchants and consumers. UPI was built as public digital infrastructure to provide simple, interoperable and low-cost payments. It must not be weakened to accommodate foreign corporate interests. The Modi government must withdraw this anti-people decision and keep UPI free.

Sd/-

Roykutty

Office Secretary

Communist Party of India

Central Office 

New Delhi

Tele: 011 23235546

e-mail: cpiofindia@gmail.com