PhonePe’s Sameer Nigam confirms that UPI will remain free for users amid government discussions on transaction fee policies, reassuring small merchants and consumers alike.
PhonePe founder and chief executive Sameer Nigam has sought to calm speculation over possible UPI fees, saying Indian consumers will not be charged for using the instant payments system. In a post on X, Nigam said, “UPI is and will remain free for all Indian Consumers! ‘Consumers will NOT BE CHARGED anything for making UPI payments.”
The reassurance came as the Payments Council of India said consumers and small merchants would continue to receive UPI services without paying transaction charges, even after the Lok Sabha passed a Bill to amend the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. The association said UPI has been free for consumers since its launch in 2016 and that kirana stores and other small businesses should also keep accepting payments without bearing the Merchant Discount Rate, or MDR, the fee usually paid by merchants to payment providers.
The wider argument is not about whether shoppers should pay at the till, but about how the system is financed. Nigam has previously argued that UPI’s huge scale makes a sustainable revenue model essential for the infrastructure that powers it, while the company itself said in 2021 that all UPI money transfers on PhonePe would remain free. In August 2025, India’s finance ministry also said there was no proposal to impose transaction charges on UPI payments, underscoring the political sensitivity around any attempt to pass costs on to users.
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