UPI payments to be charged? RBI Governor clarifies

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Wednesday clarified that no proposal has been placed before the central bank to impose charges on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions. The statement came during the post-Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) press conference.

Even during the previous post-policy conference, the Governor had issued a clarification regarding the issue. “I never said that UPI can stay free forever. What I said was there are costs (associated with UPI transactions), and they need to be paid for by someone," he had said.

“Who pays is important but not so important than someone footing the bill. So, it is important for us for the sustainability of the model, that whether collectively or individually someone pays," he had said.


Earlier concerns on sustainability
The Governor has on multiple occasions raised concerns about the sustainability of UPI’s zero-cost framework. Speaking at the Financial Express BFSI Summit in Mumbai in July, he had said, “This (UPI) is an important infrastructure. The government has taken a view it should be available free and the government is subsidising it. And I would say it has borne good fruits,” pointing to the rapid expansion of digital payments.

According to RBI data, UPI processed 20 billion transactions in August 2025, reflecting a 34% increase in volume year-on-year.

Malhotra had then emphasised, “The important thing is that the UPI, or any other payment system for that matter, is accessible, cheap, secure, and sustainable… and it will be sustainable only if someone bears the costs. So as long as it’s the government or someone else — that’s not so important — the important thing is that costs of any service should be paid, whether collectively or by the user.”

At present, the government continues to support UPI by subsidising transaction costs to keep it free for users.