Mumbai: Leading Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform, Google Pay has reportedly introduced a convenience fee for electricity and gas bill payments. This fee applies to customers who have been enjoying free transactions for low-value bills until now. However, Google Pay has not yet officially confirmed or commented on the new charges.
The fees on Google Pay vary between 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent of the transaction amount, along with any applicable GST.As per reports, Google Pay had introduced a Rs 3 convenience fee for mobile recharges about a year ago. The report also mentions that when paying an electricity bill using a credit card, customers were charged around Rs 15 as a “processing fee for debit and credit card transactions,” with GST added on top.
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Google Pay users paying for utilities such as electricity and gas bills via credit or debit cards will now be charged a processing fee. Payments made directly from a bank account using UPI remain exempt from this convenience fee.
Google Pay maintains a significant market presence in digital transactions. Google Pay handles approximately 37% of UPI transactions, ranking second to Walmart-supported PhonePe. The platform processed UPI transactions worth Rs 8.26 lakh crore as of January.
In 2020, the Indian government waived the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) for UPI transactions under Rs 2,000 to encourage digital payments. While the government covers the cost for these transactions, platforms still face difficulty in generating direct revenue from users. Despite these challenges, UPI usage is booming, with 16.99 billion transactions worth Rs 23.48 lakh crore recorded in January 2025, showing a 39 per cent growth compared to the previous year.
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