Congress MPs’ support to MDR is on record: House panel chief | India News
NEW DELHI: As Congress members of Parliament’s standing committee on finance sought to dissociate themselves from the panel’s support for MDR on UPI transactions, its chairperson, Bhartruhari Mahtab, questioned their claim, noting their presence in the meeting and being party to the report were matters of record.“It is all on the record. The MPs were present and participated in the discussion. The report was read out to them and their approval taken before it was adopted and submitted to Speaker Om Birla on the issue of demand for grants,” Mahtab, a parliamentarian of seven Lok Sabha terms, said.He said the record showed that three opposition MPs – TMC’s Saugata Roy and Congress’s Manish Tewari and Pramod Tiwari – were part of the deliberations, which made the recommendations to levy merchant discount rate (MDR). The report was tabled in LS on March 12.The committee had backed the introduction of MDR, saying a viable revenue mechanism needed to be found to ensure financial sustainability of the UPI system. It noted, “While UPI is expected to process up to 150 billion transactions per month and add 600 million new users, the current govt incentive covers merely 11% of industry’s actual costs and 14% of potential MDR collections, creating a structural funding gap impacting long-term infrastructure investment.”With Congress brass flaying govt for introducing MDR, some of its MPs rubbished the contention that they had supported the levy, calling it a “pathetic” attempt by BJP to divert attention from the backlash to the “UPI tax”.Deputy leader of the opposition in LS Gaurav Gogoi and Manish Tewari claimed the standing committee did not discuss the “UPI tax” that govt has announced, as the department of finance did not have any specific proposal on the issue when they last met the panel. Gogoi said while questions were raised on the need for MDR, govt representatives did not have satisfactory answers.Agreeing with Gogoi, Tewari accused govt of misusing the privileged proceedings of the standing committee to make political points. “No specific proposal qua the recent MDR to be levied on UPI transactions from Oct 15 was ever brought before the committee on finance – rate, quantum, amount of fee to be charged, ceiling and exemption slabs, etc,” he said.
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Instead, Tewari said, concerns were raised by the committee members about the need and efficacy of MDR over the course of various sittings of the committee.When asked about their denial, Mahtab, a BJP MP, maintained this was a matter of record and could be verified from the LS secretariat.Govt sources also said the final report is shared with all members of a committee before it is adopted, and an MP can submit a dissent if s/he does not agree with any of the recommendations. This report was adopted unanimously, they stressed.
