NPCI UPI Vyapaar Saksham Scheme: Small shopkeepers taking UPI payment will get incentive of up to ₹ 750.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched a very beneficial scheme to connect the country’s small shopkeepers, grocery store operators, street vendors and rural and town traders with digital payments. According to the latest circular issued by NPCI, ‘UPI Vyapaar Saksham Scheme’ has been launched with the aim of strengthening the digital payment infrastructure among small merchants. This scheme will remain effective for the next three years. In the first and attractive phase of this scheme, new shopkeepers will be given a direct incentive of ₹ 750 for installing UPI Soundbox and ₹ 300 for installing physical QR Code at their shop. The special thing is that the funds for this scheme will be raised from the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) collection imposed on big merchants, in which member banks and Payment Service Providers (PSP) will contribute 5 percent of their MDR share.

NPCI has ensured that the direct benefits of this scheme actually reach the small and medium traders. According to the rules, the scope of this scheme will include all those small traders whose annual turnover is up to ₹ 40 lakh. Talking about geographical eligibility, the main focus of the scheme has been kept on shopkeepers from Tier-3 to Tier-6 cities (small cities and towns), North-East, Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh of the country. However, small shopkeepers in Tier-1 and Tier-2 big cities also need not despair—all those street vendors and artisans working in big cities who are registered under the Central Government’s PM SVANidhi or PM Vishwakarma scheme will also be able to take full advantage of this incentive.

To prevent fake and inactive accounts, NPCI has linked QR Code and Soundbox incentives to genuine business transactions. Only UPI merchant transactions up to ₹2,000 will be eligible under this scheme. Any new merchant must accept a minimum of 25 eligible UPI transactions every month in at least two out of three months of any quarter to avail the incentive of ₹300 for QR Code or ₹750 for Soundbox. Additionally, the merchant must have a minimum total monthly UPI transaction value of ₹5,000 in those months. As soon as this condition is fulfilled, the shopkeeper will get the benefit of incentive amount through the concerned bank or payment app.

NPCI has divided the total incentive pool of ‘UPI Vyapar Saksham Yojana’ into three major components, to attract new merchants as well as motivate existing merchants to do more digital transactions:

Along with this scheme, another big relief for small shopkeepers is that the system of Zero MDR for all UPI merchant payments up to ₹ 2,000 and small merchants (P2PM) with monthly collections of ₹ 1 lakh will continue in full force. This means that no fee will be deducted from the pocket of small shopkeepers, on the contrary, free soundbox and transaction bonus will be given to small shopkeepers using the MDR funds raised from large corporate and high-value transactions. According to NPCI, this three-year scheme will commence from the same date on which MDR will be applicable on select large merchant transactions. To avail the benefits of this scheme, shopkeepers can register themselves by contacting the merchant support of their bank or authorized UPI payment app (like Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay or BharatPe).