New Delhi: In a sharp political salvo, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to show leadership and stand resolute against what he described as American pressure to levy taxes on India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI), one of the world's most successful real-time digital payment systems.
Gandhi made the intervention during a public address, saying the current government had been too accommodating when Washington floated suggestions that could amount to taxing or placing regulatory conditions on UPI transactions processed through Indian platforms operating abroad. He argued that such a concession would not only compromise India's digital payments sovereignty but also set a dangerous precedent for how aggressively developing economies are treated in global trade negotiations.
"The Prime Minister must show courage," Gandhi said. "UPI is India's pride, a system built to serve millions and now embraced across borders. It cannot be reduced to a revenue source for another country through backdoor taxation."
The remarks come amid growing concerns within India's technology and finance circles about increasing scrutiny from US trade officials regarding digital service taxes and cross-border payment regulations. While no formal agreement has been reached and the matter remains under discussion, Indian officials have been engaging in consultations with their American counterparts to ensure UPI's global rollout is not hamstrung by restrictive fiscal measures.
India's UPI currently operates in multiple countries including the US, where it has gained traction among the Indian diaspora and increasingly among mainstream consumers. The system processes billions of transactions monthly at near-zero cost to users, making it a flagship export of India's digital public infrastructure.
Gandhi's intervention places the UPI dispute squarely in the domestic political arena, framing it as a test of whether India will assert its technological sovereignty or yield to external financial demands. The Congress leader suggested the issue deserves serious parliamentary debate rather than being handled quietly through bureaucratic channels.
The Prime Minister's Office has not yet issued a detailed response to Gandhi's comments.
