UPI transactions over Rs 2,000 to attract 1.1% fee, but not for you; and, fugitive separatist Amritpal Singh has surfaced again

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1.1% fee on UPI transactions above Rs 2,000, but who pays that?

After enabling UPI for prepaid instruments (PPI) like online wallets, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has recommended a 1.1% fee on such transactions, subject to certain conditions.

The details: The interchange fee, which will come into effect from April 1, will be charged (to merchants) only on UPI payments above the value of Rs 2,000 made to them using PPIs and RuPay credit cards.

• The levy ranges from 0.5% to 1.1% for different categories of merchants, and a cap is also present on specific categories.
• UPI payments made from bank accounts using Google Pay, PhonePe, Bhim and the like will continue to remain free, with no cost levied to the payer or receiver.

The big picture: Interchange fees are transaction fees that the merchant has to pay whenever a customer makes a payment through prepaid payment instruments like wallets, smart cards, vouchers and magnetised chips.

• Examples of the mentioned instruments are the Paytm wallet, Amazon Pay and SODEXO vouchers.
• Therefore, if a customer makes a payment above Rs 2000 to a merchant, the latter will have to pay the interchange fee to the respective payment service provider.

Between the lines: Notably, the fee will not apply to peer-to-peer (P2P) or peer-to-peer-merchant (P2PM) transactions between a bank account and a PPI.

• This means that if a user sends money from their Paytm wallet to a friend, family member or small business merchant’s bank account, the transaction won’t attract any fee.
• However, PPI issuers will now be required to pay 15 basis points to the remitter bank as a wallet-loading fee for recharging a wallet with over Rs 2,000.

Who will it impact: The move will impact medium-category shopkeepers who will have to bear the cost of transactions above Rs 2,000. Additionally, it will depend on the shopkeeper whether they want to pass on the higher cost to the customer.

• The move, however, will allow users to send money from the user’s PPI to the merchant’s bank account. Earlier, this was only allowed from one wallet of the same service provider to another.
• Payment service providers, who require revenue after struggling to maintain profitability due to low-transaction fees on UPI transactions, will also benefit.

Fugitive separatist Amritpal Singh releases new video; says attack on him is attack on Sikh community

Amid a flurry of reports about fugitive separatist Amritpal Singh being spotted on CCTV cameras in different cities in India, he has now gone live on YouTube saying the government's action against him “was not about his arrest but an attack on the Sikh community”.

• In the video, he urges Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh to hold Sarbat Khalsa (meeting) at Talwandi Sabo on the occasion of Baiskahi “to break the fear created by the government in the minds of the people.”
• He has asked Sikh youth to speak up against the “oppression” by the Indian government - which he says has taken a stand against Sikhs.
• He appealed to all Sikh youth to take part in the meeting he proposed, to “save Punjab” and “save the youth of Punjab.” He concludes by saying “no one can do anything to him.”

The background: Punjab Police had launched an operation to arrest Amritpal, weeks after his supporters stormed the Ajnala police station near Amritsar after the arrest of his key aide Lovepreet Singh.

• He has been on the run ever since, and multiple videos of him surfaced online.

Who is he? Amritpal Singh - a self-proclaimed follower of pro-Khalistan slain militant Bhindranwale - is the leader of “Waris Punjab De” or heirs of Punjab, an organisation floated by late lawyer-actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu in 2021.

• The organization reportedly seeks to help the youth of the state “follow the tenets of Sikhism” and “establish Khalsa Raj”.
• Amritpal reportedly also threatened Union Home Minister Amit Shah saying he would meet the same fate as former PM Indira Gandhi.

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