Paytm Clarifies It Is Not Charging Extra for Digital Transactions

Digital payment company Paytm on Monday refuted reports that it is going to charge users extra amount for digital transactions on its platform. The company's comments come after a report had earlier stated that it was planning to charge its customers as much as 1 percent of the transaction value starting today. 

"We would like to clarify that Paytm app/payment gateway owned by One97 Communications 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," the Noida-headquartered company said in a statement.

An ET report on Sunday had said that Paytm is going to allegedly charge 1 percent on payments via credit cards, 0.9 percent for debit cards and up to Rs. 12-15 through net banking and UPI-based methods.

According to the digital payments company, there have been few merchants like educational institutes or utility service providers who do not absorb credit card charges and expect customers to pay the same.

"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," said the company, adding that it does not have any plans to levy any such fee in the future.

Paytm had earlier announced that it has grabbed over 50 percent market share in the payment gateway industry. The company claimed it was ahead of the competition with largest volume and the largest merchant base and has processed over 400 million transactions each month for merchants which is five times higher than the next biggest player.

The digital payments firm is preferred by online platforms such as IRCTC, Zomato, Big Basket, PVR, Dominos, Jio, and Idea among others, for a majority share of their transactions.

Written with inputs from IANS

Disclosure: Paytm's parent company One97 is an investor in Gadgets 360.