Cabinet Clears ₹1,500 Cr Incentive for UPI Industry

It will provide 0.15% incentive for UPI payments under ₹2k to small merchants

- Manas Pimpalkhare & Shayan Ghosh

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: A ₹1,500-crore incentive scheme to promote low-value Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions was among several key projects that the Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared on Wednesday.

Under the Digital India Incentive scheme, the government would provide a 0.15% incentive to industry participants for UPI transactions of less than ₹2,000 from customers to small merchants for FY25, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

This means that banks and app service providers facilitating UPI payments under ₹2,000 for small merchants will continue to receive incentives to facilitate the homegrown digital payments mechanism.

"The incentive scheme for promotion of low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (P2M) will be implemented at an estimated outlay of ₹1,500 crore, from 01.04.2024 to 31.03.2025," the government said in a statement. P2M refers to person-to-merchant transactions.