NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah backed Centre’s decision to introduce 0.4 percent merchant discount rate on UPI payments above Rs 2,000, saying that “running a UPI system” is not cheap.While talking to reporters, Omar said that people don’t appreciate what they “get for free.”“Not everyone is charged. First of all, person-to-person money transfers are not charged. After that, individual consumers will not be charged unless they cross a certain ceiling limit. As far as I understand, running this UPI system is not cheap. It takes a lot of money to run it. And the truth is, we don’t properly appreciate what we get for free,” J&K CM said.“The government should ensure that the general public is not charged these fees. If a company is charged, I have no objection because companies make good money through UPI anyway,” he added.This comes after the opposition raised concerns over the rollout of UPI charges, alleging that the cost would ultimately be borne by common citizens.Earlier on Wednesday, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi targeted the centre and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of putting a on every single person by “taxing UPI”.“Modiji has a completely diff concept, he’s neither left or right he has decided to completely lie down straight and in front of Donald Trump. He’s put a tax on every single Indian person by taxing UPI and giving huge amount op money to the United States,” the former Congress president added.

The new MDR will take effect from October 15. However, UPI payments between individuals, including transfers made to friends, will not be charged, according to the Centre.Responding to the critics and concerns over the new framework, the Union finance ministry said banks were asked to ensure merchants do not pass MDR charges on to customers. “UPI application providers are expressly prohibited from imposing platform fees or hidden charges”.