Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Saturday accused the Union Government of laying a “digital trap” by introducing a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on specified Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions after the Centre had publicly said in 2022 that there was no consideration to levy charges for UPI services.

In a lengthy post on X, Thackeray said the Centre first used demonetisation and subsequently UPI to encourage digital payments, creating a habit among citizens before introducing charges on certain transactions.