Upasana Taku, MobiKwik co-founder, urges return of UPI MDR fees
Upasana Taku, CFO and co-founder of MobiKwik, is pushing to bring back Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) fees for UPI payments.
She says the current zero-MDR policy (meant to boost digital payments) has ended up putting a financial strain on banks and payment companies.
According to Taku, large merchants like Eternal and Policybazaar benefit from the zero-MDR regime.
As she puts it, "The current zero-MDR regime is financially unsustainable for banks and payment companies."
Taku proposes MDR for 50L UPI
Taku suggests MDR should return, but only for merchants handling over ₹50 lakh in monthly UPI transactions. This would help cover admin costs and make things fairer across the board.
She also noted that government subsidies for UPI are dropping; government subsidies dropped from ₹2,196 crore in FY26 to ₹2,000 crore in FY27, making things even tougher.
Her idea lines up with recent government recommendations for a graded MDR system to keep UPI running smoothly, but so far major firms like Zomato and Policybazaar haven't weighed in.