Traders associations organised awareness programmes across the district on Monday to highlight the impact of the proposed merchant discount rate (MDR) charges to be collected from the traders/businessmen/merchants from October 16 onwards by the banks before settling the transaction amounts collected through UPI mechanism into the respective accounts of the merchants/traders/business house.

While a section of traders in Thanjavur district suggested that the charges to be levied on payments through united payment interface (UPI) for transactions of over ₹2,000 be borne by banks and governments, another section of traders demanded that the UPI payments irrespective of the transaction amount should remain free.

Considering the ease of completing a transaction at shops/showrooms enjoyed by the customers and non-cumbursome process of depositing of daily collections by the traders/businessmen, traders associations in Kumbakonam and surrounding areas suggested that the new MDR be collected by the National Payments Corporation of India be borne by banks or shared by banks and the State and Union governments so that the chances of traders/businessmen passing on the MDR charges on transactions over ₹2,000 to the customers could be avoided.

Traders association in Thanjavur, Pattukottai, and surrounding areas demanded that the UPI transactions should continue to remain free of charges since the proposed 0.4% MDR on UPI transactions of over ₹2,000 at merchant/retailer outlets might be gradually increased in the years to come and thereby force the traders/businessmen to pass on the burden to the customers in future.

Already the customers were made to bear the burden of GST component of the sale price of the products they purchase or the contractual price of a service availed by them, they said.