Ashneer Grover weighs in on RBI decision to allow credit cards be linked with UPI

Ashneer Grover, former co-founder and former managing director of BharatPe welcomed the Reserve Bank of India's decision to allow credit cards to be linked with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Taking it to Twitter, the Shark Tank India judge called it a "great move". He also talked about the Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) and stated that shopkeepers won't pay in exchange for payment services provided by banks and service providers.

MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) is basically a fee that a merchant is charged by their issuing bank for accepting payments from their customers via credit and debit cards.

Recently, BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover resigned as MD and director of the fintech company following a long tussle. Having been engaged in a battle with the board of BharatPe, Grover has now handed in his resignation only days after his wife Madhuri Jain Grover was terminated as the head of controls on allegations of funds misappropriation. Grover recently lost an arbitration that he had filed against the company's investigation against him, with an emergency arbitrator holding that there was no ground to stop governance review at the fintech firm. 

Reserve Bank Of India Allows Credit Cards To Be Linked With UPI Platform

On June 8, the Reserve Bank allowed credit cards to be linked with the unified payments interface (UPI), which will enable more people to make payments using the popular platform. At present, UPI facilitates transactions by linking savings or current accounts through users' debit cards.

"It is proposed to allow linking of credit cards to UPI," RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said while announcing the regulatory moves, along with the bi-monthly policy review.

He said that to start with Rupay credit cards issued by the RBI-promoted National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will be enabled with this facility, and the facility will be made available after system developments. Das said the new arrangement is expected to provide more avenues and convenience to the customers in making payments through the UPI platform.

UPI has become the most inclusive mode of payment in India, with over 26 crore unique users and 5 crore merchants onboarded on the platform, he added. In May, 594.63 crore transactions amounting to Rs 10.40 lakh crore were processed through UPI, Das said. The interoperability of prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) has also facilitated access of PPIs to the UPI payment system for undertaking transactions, Das said. 

(Image: PTI/Twitter/@Ashneer_Grover )