Shopkeepers across the country are now angry over the charges levied on UPI transactions. A senior official of industry body AIMRA has informed that mobile phone retailers across India are making full preparations to celebrate “No UPI Day” on October 2 in protest against the 0.4 percent Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charge on UPI transactions.

The government has imposed a 0.4 percent fee on UPI transfers of more than Rs 2,000 made to merchants from October 15, although personal-to-personal (P2P) transactions and small payments have been completely exempted from this charge. Let us tell you in detail why mobile retailers are opposing this new rule so much and what are their demands.

Big announcement to celebrate 'No UPI Day' on 2nd October

Tarvinder Singh, Vice President of All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) and President of Delhi-NCR region, has announced in an official statement that AIMRA has decided to celebrate 'No UPI Day' on 2 October 2026.

The main objective of this protest is to convey to the government the concerns and anger of mobile retailers across the country regarding the 0.4 percent Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) implemented on eligible merchant UPI transactions. He clarified that on this day, retailers across the country will cover their UPI QR codes with black cloth on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti and will not accept any payment through UPI from customers on that day.

There will be heavy burden on the pockets of small shopkeepers, there will be loss every month

A memorandum has been sent by AIMRA to the country's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in which the full account of the loss caused by this charge has been given. According to the memorandum, due to this step of imposing MDR on UPI, small retailers whose turnover ranges from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 30 lakh every month through UPI will have to suffer a direct loss of Rs 2,000 to Rs 12,000 every month.

The Mobile Retailers Body estimates that due to this 0.4% MDR, there will be an additional financial burden of about Rs 40 crore every month and about Rs 500 crore annually on small mobile retailers across India, which will prove to be very difficult for these small shopkeepers to bear.

Shopkeepers bluntly – There should be 'zero MDR' structure for Digital India

While speaking, Tarvinder Singh said that if we want to see 'Digital India' progressing further in the country, then MDR on UPI should always remain zero. He clarified that this is in no way a protest against UPI or Digital India, but our real concern is about the huge financial burden on small merchants who proudly accept digital payments.

If the government wants the caravan of Digital India to continue moving forward, then digital payments should remain cheap and affordable for the entire retail ecosystem. Mobile retailers have a very clear demand that merchant UPI payments should be continued entirely under 'Zero MDR Structure'.