Proposed debit card rate not lucrative, says PCI

PCI adds, further reduction in MDR will discourage future investments, affecting e-payments industry

The rate structure proposed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on using debit cards for electronic payments is not remunerative. Further reduction in merchant discount rate (MDR) will discourage future investments and adversely affect growth of digital payments industry, according to Payments Council of India (PCI). MDR is the rate charged to a merchant for using digital-transaction services.   

RBI has proposed that small merchants may not pay more than 0.4 per cent of the transaction value for physical PoS (point of sale) and 0.3 per cent towards digital PoS. 

All other categories of merchants (apart from government) may not pay more