Samajwadi Vyapar Sabha Protests MDR Charges On UPI, Sends Memo To President

Workers of the Samajwadi Vyapar Sabha, Pratapgarh, staged a protest on Thursday against the proposed 0.04 percent MDR, or Merchant Discount Rate, charge on UPI payments and submitted a memorandum addressed to the President opposing the move.

The protest was held in Pratapgarh under the leadership of district president Suresh Chandra Jaiswal and district general secretary Ashish Kumar Srivastava. The workers marched from Ambedkar Chauraha to the District Magistrate’s office, where they handed over the memorandum and registered their opposition to the proposed charge.

During the demonstration, speakers said that if an MDR charge is imposed on UPI payments, it could place an additional financial burden on small and medium traders. They also said that such a charge could affect the process of encouraging digital payments. The traders demanded that the proposed MDR charge be scrapped.

District president Suresh Chandra Jaiswal said the Samajwadi Party and the Samajwadi Vyapar Sabha oppose the proposed charge. Questioning the government’s trade policies, he said that traders should not be burdened with additional charges.

District general secretary Ashish Kumar Srivastava said that the burden of charges such as GST and MDR is being increased on traders. He also criticised the government’s policies while referring to farmers not getting a fair price for their produce and cases of paper leaks linked to students.

A large number of traders and workers took part in the protest. Those present included State Secretary, Vyapar Sabha, Dr Rajesh Gupta; district vice president Ashutosh Pandey; Pramod Kumar Srivastava; Nikhil Jaiswal; Ramlochan Singh; Rajnarayan Gupta; Pawan Kumar Patel; Aamir Khan; Udayveer Yadav; Shani Gupta; Ramnath; Chandresh Pal; Mohd. Waseem; Mohd. Aamir; Ravishankar Yadav; Anuj Gupta; city president Nisar Ahmed; Samajwadi Party MP media in-charge Waqar Ahmed; Krishna Kumar Patel; Rajesh Yadav; and Himanshu Kumar Jaiswal.

At the end of the protest, the workers submitted the memorandum demanding the withdrawal of the proposed MDR charge and appealed for a decision in the interest of traders. They maintained that the proposed charge on UPI payments should not be implemented, saying it would add to the pressure on traders and could discourage the wider use of digital payment systems.