Will UPI MDR boost e-rupee fortunes?

India will start charging a 0.4% merchant discount rate (MDR) on certain UPI transactions above Rs 2,000 from October 15, potentially making merchants explore alternative payment methods like the digital rupee (CBDC). However, widespread adoption of the CBDC depends more on scaling programmable government payment use cases, such as targeted subsidies, rather than MDR impact alone.

This Wire brief sits within Fusion42's coverage of Fintech, and 45 sources have reported it between 19 Jul 2026 and 15 Oct 2026.