Jairam Ramesh countered Nirmala Sitharaman's claims regarding a new taxation bill. He stated government assurances do not replace statutory safeguards for UPI. Ramesh argued that MDR charges would inevitably affect consumers and small businesses. He questioned why RBI's capacity to support UPI without charges is ignored. The bill removes zero-MDR guarantees, raising concerns about foreign platform dominance.

Sitharaman accused the opposition leader of "spreading a canard" and clarified that MDR "applies only on the merchants and not on the end users/customers," adding that the revenue…

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday pushed back Congress leader Jairam Ramesh's claims that ordinary people could end up paying more for using the Unified Payments…