Lalganj Traders Protest Proposed UPI MDR Charge, Submit Memorandum

Traders in Lalganj, Rae Bareli, staged a protest against the proposed Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charge on UPI payments and submitted a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The memorandum was sent through Lalganj Sub-Divisional Magistrate Rajesh Shukla at the tehsil office, along with a sit-in protest.

The protest was organised by the Uttar Pradesh Udyog Vyapar Pratinidhi Mandal, Lalganj, under the leadership of its city president, Vivek Sharma. Traders marched on foot from the trade organisation’s office and reached the tehsil while raising their opposition to the proposed charge on UPI payments.

Vivek Sharma said that protests and memorandum submissions were being held at district headquarters and tehsil headquarters across Uttar Pradesh against the proposed MDR charge on UPI payments. He said traders in the state had already been dealing with the impact of GST, demonetisation and the coronavirus period.

According to Sharma, business is already facing a difficult situation and imposing an MDR charge would amount to injustice against traders. He said the business community would not tolerate it and would not pay the tax at any cost.

Sharma further said that if the tax was imposed from 15 October, traders would come out onto the roads, shut their establishments and launch an agitation. He said the traders had reached the tehsil after holding a protest march from the trade organisation’s office.

District president Rohit Soni said that imposing the charge on traders amounted to deceiving them. He said traders were already suffering and were paying GST on online business, while different kinds of taxes were being imposed on them. He described this as extreme injustice against the trading community.

Organisation patron Anil Gupta said that the trader community had consistently stood shoulder to shoulder with the government and supported every development-related work. He said traders were being subjected to injustice through a continuous and unfair approach. Gupta called the situation completely condemnable and said the trading community strongly opposed it.

Dalmau Trade Board president Ramgopal Vaishya, Maharani Ganj Trade Board president Anil Singh, patron Rambabu Soni, district general secretary Appu Sharma, district vice-president Sanu Bajpai, city general secretary of the organisation Kaushalendra Kanchan, district president and industry minister Hansraj Vishwakarma, city senior vice-president Mahesh Soni, Pushkar Gupta, Ashutosh Gupta, Amit Gupta, city youth president Prateek Sharma, city youth general secretary Raunak Bhadauria, Kailash Chand Gupta, Kailash Kesarwani, Parul Gupta and Anshu Gupta were present.

Mandi Samiti Trade Board president Suresh Sonkar, general secretary Shravan Kumar Maurya, Mohammed Rizwan, Mohammed Aslam, Baba Raham Ali, Ram Sajeevan Sonkar and Deepak Awasthi were also among those present. Hundreds of traders and office-bearers attended the protest.