No MDR charges on payment modes to be notified on Jan 1: Finance Minister Sitharaman

New Delhi, India–

The customers will not be charged merchant discount rates (MDRs) for transactions made through “payment modes” that will be notified from January 1, 2020.

“Those payment modes that will be notified from 1st January 2020 will not have charges under the MDR being levied on them,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday. In her Union Budget announcement in July, Sitharaman had said that customers or merchants would not be charged MDRs as the Reserve Bank of India and banks would absorb the costs.