No debit card swipe fee for payments up to ₹2K
From Jan 1, merchant discount rate to be borne by govt for 2 years
NEW DELHI : In a major push to make India a less-cash economy, the Union cabinet on Friday decided to waive the merchant discount rate (MDR) applicable on digital payments pertaining to the retail sector up to a certain threshold.
MDR applicable on transactions made through debit cards, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar-enabled payments system up to and including a value of ~2,000 will be borne by the government for a period of two years with effect from 1 January, said Ravi Shankar Prasad, information technology (IT) and law minister, while announcing the cabinet decision.
MDR is the charge paid by a merchant to a bank for accepting payment from customers via credit or debit cards. It is expressed as a percentage of the transaction amount.
It is estimated that the MDR to be reimbursed to banks in respect of transactions less than ~2,000 in value will be ~1,050 crore in FY19 and ~1,462 crore in FY20, a government statement said.
“As a result of this approval, for all transactions less than ~2,000 in value, the consumer and the merchant will not suffer any additional burden in the form of MDR, thereby leading to greater adoption of digital pay- ment modes for such transactions,” the statement added.
“This is a revolutionary step to encourage digital payments for all retailers. Now, paying through digital modes has been made at par with cash payments... in fact, better. Cashless modes will have an edge over cash because of additional convenience and freedom from fake or counterfeit currency,” said Sunil Kulkarni, joint managing director at Oxigen Services (India) Pvt. Ltd, an e-wallet and payment solutions company.
The statement also said that a committee comprising the secretary, department of financial services; secretary, ministry of electronics & IT; and the CEO, National Payments Corporation of India, will look into the industry cost structure of such transactions, which will help determine the levels of reimbursement. Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) brought in several changes to MDR for debit card transactions which will be effective from 1 January. According to its latest circular on MDR, for merchants with a turnover of up to ~20 lakh, MDR has been capped at 0.4% if the transaction involves physical infrastructure such as a swipe machine. If the transaction is conducted via a QR code, MDR has been further reduced to 0.3%, subject to a maximum of ~200 per transaction.
For merchants whose annual turnover exceeds ~20 lakh, MDR has been capped at 0.9% for swipe machine-based transactions and 0.8% for QR code-based sales, subject to a maximum of Rs1,000 per transaction.
NEWDELHI: The Union Cabinet on Friday cleared a bill that criminalises the Islamic practice of instant triple talaq, ahead of it being taken up in the Winter Session of Parliament.
In November, the Narendra Modi government said it was ready with a bill that would provide a legal framework to prosecute Muslim men calling off marriages using a custom outlawed by the Supreme Court.
Instant triple talaq, or Talaqe-biddat involves Muslim men divorcing their wives by mentioning the word ‘talaq (divorce)’ three times in one go, sometimes over email, WhatsApp messages or letters. The proposed bill hands out a threeyear jail sentence as well as fine, and states that the offence will be cognisable and nonbailable.
Titled the ‘Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017’, the proposed law also gives a “victim” of Talaq-e-Biddat a right to seek maintenance from her husband before a magistrate’s court. She will also be entitled to her children’s custody, the draft law
THE SC HAD STRUCK DOWN THE CUSTOM AS ‘ARBITRARY’ AND ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ IN ITS AUGUST VERDICT THAT WAS WIDELY HAILED BY ACTIVISTS
says.
In August, the top court had struck down the custom as “arbitrary” and “unconstitutional” in a verdict that was hailed as a watershed moment for gender justice in India.
A law ministry official, explaining the rationale behind the bill, said: “Before the judgement this year, there were 177 reported cases of Talaq-e-biddat. Since then, there have been 67. These are only reported cases, the actual figure could be much higher.”
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board, a non-governmental body that lobbies for the application of Islamic civil laws and opposes any ban on triple talaq, also welcomed the verdict, saying it “accords protection to Muslim personal laws”.