Digital wallet Paytm has rebutted the reports that the company is going to levy extra charges on users for digital transactions on its platform. In a statement issued to media, Paytm clarified that the Paytm app/payment gateway owned by One97 Communications Limited "does not charge or levy any convenience/transaction fee from our customers on using any payment method which includes cards, UPI, net-banking, and wallet. Paytm customers will continue using all the services available on the platform without any fee."
According to Economic Times, the company will start passing on the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) that banks and card companies charge for digital transactions. The move would help Paytm reduce cash burn and become profitable. The report claimed that the company would levy a charge of one percent on payments through credit cards, 0.9 percent for debit cards and up to Rs 12-15 for transactions by net banking and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). But on Monday afternoon, the Noida-headquartered company cleared the air.
Some of the merchants, including educational institutes or utility service providers, do not absorb the credit card charges and pass on these charges to the customers. Paytm further added: "In such cases, we recommend our users to pay through their debit cards and UPI to avoid these charges. We would like to reiterate that these charges aren't levied by Paytm in any scenario."
The company also said that it has no plans to levy any charges on the transaction in the near future. Paytm has been leading the digital payment app market in India. According to data from research platform KalaGato Pte, Paytm leads the market in terms of app installs with a 43 percent share for the month of March.
Flipkart's digital payments app PhonePe witnessed an astonishing rise in installation on smartphones and recorded a 77 percent jump in the first three months. Currently, it holds a 33.4 percent market share.
