BENGALURU: Digital payment gateways and makers of credit and debit card readers are resisting a government panel’s recommendations to slash the fees merchants have to pay banks on card transactions. These were a part of other recommendations the panel made towards encouraging digital transactions and disincentivising cash payments. MDR is what merchants have to pay to banks issuing the card readers, or point-of-sale (POS) devices. “With low MDR, banks will not have incentive to acquire merchants and deploy POS machines. But on MDR, the panel highlighted that the fee is essential for the sustained growth of the digital payments industry as it incentivises banks to issue cards and promote their usage.

Source: Economic Times January 25, 2017 19:58 UTC