Pune: Around 600 wholesale traders and more than 10,000 retailers in the city observed a ‘No UPI Day’ on Friday to protest against the proposed introduction of merchant discount rate (MDR) on certain UPI transactions.“It is impossible for traders operating at thin margins to bear the additional burden of charges. In line with traders nationally, we are not accepting UPI payments for one day,” said Rajendra Bathiya, president of Poona Merchants Chambers.The day-long suspension also affected sales as many customers arrived without cash. “There are so many wholesale traders in market yard who do 60-70% of their business on UPI. Many small businesses buy from us and we operate at a 1% margin. We cannot afford to pay the additional charges,” said Raikumar Nahar, an edible oil wholesaler.During the course of the day, traders said, several customers either had to arrange cash or dropped purchases. “Some paid whatever amount of cash they were carrying. We can’t expect small businesses to do bank transfers for payments of Rs 2,500 for instance,” said Navin Agarwal, a dry fruits wholesaler.On Oct 1, Poona Merchants Chamber urged govt to continue 0 MDR on UPI transactions. “For a small trader, even a small transaction charge, along with GST on the MDR, can increase the cost of accepting digital payments. The chamber believes that such a cost may discourage small traders from accepting UPI for higher-value transactions,” the association said.A tea stall owner who purchases sugar wholesale from market yard said, “We buy one 25kg bag of sugar at a time and pay by UPI. Now all the traders are expecting either cash or bank transfers. It is going to become very inconvenient as most of my customers pay even Rs 10 via UPI.”
