The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) notified the UPI Vyapaar Saksham Scheme in a November 11, 2026 circular to UPI members, funding small-merchant acceptance from the merchant discount rate (MDR) on UPI payments. Each issuing bank, acquiring bank, payer app provider and UPI app provider will put 5% of its MDR share into the fund, and the scheme runs for three years from the date the MDR takes effect.
Why it matters: The scheme pays ₹300 per new physical QR code and ₹750 per soundbox, plus incentives tied to payments of ₹2,000 or less, for merchants with annual turnover up to ₹40 lakh in Tier 3 to Tier 6 centres, the North-Eastern states, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The fund depends on the 0.4% MDR on merchant payments above ₹2,000, and NPCI had not notified a start date for that charge as of November 11.
Source: CNBC-TV18, November 12, 2026; The Economic Times, November 12, 2026; The Hindu, November 11, 2026
Related: NPCI tells India’s Supreme Court that merchants cannot pass the UPI MDR on to customers · NPCI defers the UPI MDR until after Diwali
Image: Renzilde, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
