📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / Deepak sankat
Business
Bhopal Traders Observe ‘No UPI Day’ Over 0.4% Discount Fee
✍️ Amar Ujala · Bhopal
🗓 08 Oct 2026, 05:15 PM
👁 20
On Oct 8, grocery and grain merchants in Bhopal stopped accepting UPI payments to protest the 0.4% merchant discount rate.
On 8 October, a group of grocery, rice and lentil traders in Bhopal deliberately refused UPI transactions, branding the day as “No UPI Day”. The coordinated boycott was observed across several local markets, where cash and other non‑digital modes became the only accepted payment methods.
The merchants say the trigger for the protest is the 0.4 percent merchant discount rate (MDR) levied on every UPI transaction. They argue that the fee erodes thin profit margins of small‑scale retailers and forces them to raise prices for end‑consumers.
Organisers warned that the refusal to accept UPI would continue beyond the single day, stating that from 16 October they would completely suspend UPI payments. The move has highlighted growing unease among small traders about the cost of digital payment infrastructure.
Authorities have not issued an official response yet, but the episode underscores the tension between fintech adoption and the financial pressures faced by low‑margin businesses in India.
The merchants say the trigger for the protest is the 0.4 percent merchant discount rate (MDR) levied on every UPI transaction. They argue that the fee erodes thin profit margins of small‑scale retailers and forces them to raise prices for end‑consumers.
Organisers warned that the refusal to accept UPI would continue beyond the single day, stating that from 16 October they would completely suspend UPI payments. The move has highlighted growing unease among small traders about the cost of digital payment infrastructure.
Authorities have not issued an official response yet, but the episode underscores the tension between fintech adoption and the financial pressures faced by low‑margin businesses in India.