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Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday urged his counterparts in Ladakh to seek written assurances from the Centre on their demands, citing the pending restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir despite earlier verbal commitments.
Speaking to the media, Abdullah said the Centre had indicated that delimitation, elections and restoration of statehood would follow in sequence, but the final step remains pending. We were told that statehood would be restored to Jammu & Kashmir after the elections, but nothing was put in writing; assurances were given verballyeven in Parliament and the Supreme Court. It was stated that three steps would follow: first delimitation, then elections, and finally, the restoration of statehood. We accepted the delimitation process, and we held elections in which a significant number of people participated. Yet, the restoration of statehood remains pending for us, he said. The J-K CM also advised Ladakh, which is currently in talks with the Central government, not to rely on verbal assurances and instead seek them in writing. On the issue of UPI Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) transaction charges, Abdullah said the charges would not be imposed on customers and that businesses facilitating the transactions would have to bear the cost. It won't apply to you or me; the businesses facilitating the transactions will have to bear it. Furthermore, the issued order explicitly states that this cost cannot be passed on to the customer, he said. Abdullah also said that no tax would be levied when individuals transfer money to each other through UPI. If you and I transfer money to each other, no tax will be levied on that either, he said. As for transactions under Rs 2,000which constitute the bulk of the businessthere are no merchant charges; for amounts exceeding Rs 2,000, there is a set limit.If large factories and merchants were to pay for it instead, I don't think anyone should have an objection, Abdullah added. The remarks came amid a political row over the revised UPI MDR framework announced by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Under the framework, a 0.4 per cent MDR will apply to select Person-to-Merchant (P2M) UPI transactions above Rs 2,000, capped at Rs 300 per transaction. The framework is scheduled to come into effect from October 15, 2026. The Centre has maintained that MDR is neither a tax nor a charge collected by the government, but is distributed among participants in the digital payments ecosystem, including banks and payment application providers. (ANI)
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