The UPI and Services Steering Committee is an institution and a high-level advisory body headed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Its core function is to guide innovation for secure, streamlined electronic payments and oversee the development of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem. The committee currently comprises 22 members, including major financial institutions like State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank, as well as key fintech players like Google Pay and PhonePe.
While the UPI system was launched by NPCI in April 2016 to solve the problem of complex, non-instantaneous digital payments, the Steering Committee's role has recently become central to the financial sustainability of the ecosystem.
Its key mechanism involves deliberating on critical policy matters, such as the potential reintroduction of the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR). The committee is tasked with deciding whether any MDR should be introduced, and if so, determining its scope, structure, and the exact transaction threshold for the levy. This decision-making power is connected to the recent legislative change: the proposed amendment to Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, via the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026. This amendment is an enabling provision that allows the government to notify which electronic payment modes will continue to receive statutory protection against charges.
The committee also works on enhancing UPI features, such as endorsing the increase of the per-transaction limit to ₹5 Lakh. The recent change involves replacing the zero-MDR regime introduced in January 2020 with a potential calibrated framework, a structure the Steering Committee will now define.