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UPI in India is recording unprecedented growth with each passing year. With the recent milestone of crossing 500 crore transactions, stakeholders are betting big on digital payments.

In a report titled Payments Vision 2025, the Reserve Bank of India aims to triple the total digital payment transactions by 2025. In its Vision, RBI also plans to bring credit cards on the UPI rails. The report states, “Feasibility of linkage of credit cards and credit components of banking products to UPI shall be explored.”

With the tremendous growth in sight for UPI technology, online businesses are exploring ways to save the transaction cost levied by the payments gateway. The best way to go about it is to save on merchant discount rates.

Merchant discount rate: explained

Transaction cost also known as MDR or merchant discount rate includes all the charges and taxes incurred by a merchant on an online transaction and plays an important role in a business’s decision to integrate a payment gateway.

To put it simply, it is the fees that a business has to pay to the payment gateway while accepting digital payments from its customers. Standard MDR for most digital payment methods like credit cards, debit cards, and wallets is around 2 percent and for purchases worth Rs 1,000, the business would get Rs 980. The remaining Rs 20 would be deducted by the payment gateway.

Considering the competition in the e-commerce segment, the expenses incurred by online businesses such as on acquisition, RTOs etc. can hamper growth in the long term. Integrating a payment gateway with reasonable MDR can help businesses cut down on expenses.

Paytm PG – enabling UPI payments at zero cost

As one of the only payment gateways in India that enables UPI payments acceptance at zero cost, Paytm PG is the leading choice for businesses to save money on merchant discount rates. With zero percent MDR, online businesses can receive the entire money with no deduction on UPI payments by the consumer.

In the current market landscape, Paytm is the only PG offering zero percent MDR while other payment gateways charge close to two percent.

This can translate into additional savings for businesses to grow and scale. The below calculation details how businesses with monthly sales volumes of Rs 1 crore can save approximately Rs 1.5 lakh every month by integrating Paytm as their payments gateway provider.

The transaction percentage estimation of 70 percent for UPI comes from larger market trends that show UPI as the most preferred mode of payment.

Considering the fact that UPI is the preferred payment mode for most online shoppers, businesses can save as much as Rs 149,420 based on the above calculation. Along with zero percent MDR on UPI, Paytm Payment Gateway offers zero percent MDR on RuPay debit cards as well. Moreover, the gateway does not charge any additional setup or maintenance fees.

Choosing an economical payment gateway like Paytm PG can help businesses with razor-thin margins to cut additional expenses and focus on scaling the business.