20 hrs ago
Railway UPI Tickets Above Rs 2,000 Face Rs 5 MDR
A new UPI payment rule is planned from October 15, 2026.
Normally, large payments to regular businesses may have a fee of 0.4 per cent.
Railway ticket payments are being treated differently.
For a railway ticket costing more than Rs 2,000, the payment-processing fee will be a flat Rs 5.
This fee is meant to be paid by the railway ticketing merchant, not the passenger.
So, a Rs 3,000 ticket should still cost Rs 3,000 when paid through UPI.
Payments of up to Rs 2,000 will not have this fee.
The total cost to the railway system will depend on how many large tickets are bought through UPI.
From October 15, 2026, railway UPI payments above Rs 2,000 will carry a flat Rs 5 MDR on the merchant side.
Passengers should not be charged the Rs 5 fee separately or see it added to the ticket fare.
Regular merchants will face a 0.4 per cent MDR on UPI payments above Rs 2,000.
UPI payments up to Rs 2,000 and person-to-person UPI transfers will remain free.
The financial impact will depend on booking volumes and how costs are shared among Railways, IRCTC, banks and payment providers.
- Who
- Railway passengers, Indian Railways, IRCTC, banks and payment service providers are affected.
- What
- UPI railway ticket payments above Rs 2,000 will have a flat Rs 5 merchant-side MDR instead of the regular 0.4 per cent rate.
- Where
- The policy applies to railway ticket bookings made through UPI.
- When
- The change is scheduled to take effect on October 15, 2026.
- Why
- Railway ticketing has been placed in a special category with a lower flat payment-processing charge than the rate for regular merchants.
Key facts
- Effective date
- October 15, 2026
- Railway ticket payments up to Rs 2,000
- No MDR
- Railway ticket payments above Rs 2,000
- Flat Rs 5 MDR per transaction
- Regular merchant payments above Rs 2,000
- 0.4 per cent MDR
- Who bears the railway MDR
- The merchant side; it should not be passed on separately to passengers
- Person-to-person UPI transfers
- Remain free irrespective of the amount
- Illustrative annual impact
- One lakh qualifying railway transactions per day would amount to about Rs 18.25 crore in MDR over a year
Quotes
Saurabh Jain
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Kota Division
“A passenger purchasing a Rs 3,000 railway ticket through UPI should not see the fare increase to Rs 3,005 merely because of the new MDR. The additional Rs 5 is a cost associated with processing the payment and is not supposed to be recovered from the passenger.”
indianexpress.com
“Passengers booking railway tickets worth more than Rs 2,000 through UPI will not have to shell out an additional amount when the new Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) regime comes into effect from October 15”
indianexpress.com
Sources
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