The digital payments and financial services corporation Paytm has started imposing taxes on some of its consumers for mobile recharge done through its platform. This tax is very small at present ranging from ₹1 to ₹6. The amount of tax levied completely depends on the recharge costs. People using the UPI service of the app, Paytm wallet, or the credit or debit card of the bank are currently being asked to make this additional payment.
As of now, this tax is not imposed on all the users of the e-commerce platform. It is assumed that slowly in the coming future every user of Paytm will be asked to make this additional payment. According to a report by Gadgets 360, some users witnessed these extra charges earlier in March. The e-commerce company had started levying taxes on the consumers for the transactions of ₹100 and above.
The firm had committed to its users that it would never impose any extra charges on them through any type of payment method used but it appears as if the company has changed its agenda in order to make more money. This step taken by the company has hacked off its customers
Many Paytm users have expressed their rage on the concerned matter. Some said that the company has double strands as it first promised that it would never levy any tax on its users and now it is doing the same. While some users claimed that the corporation is trying to cover up its downslide in the market by charging an additional fee to its users.
PhonePe was the first digital payments company to charge a ‘processing fee’ to its users for mobile recharges above ₹50. The company started this in October 2021 but faced a lot of criticism from the users over the social media platform.
None of the above two companies have yet made any public statements on how they decide if a customer is liable to pay the extra charges or not.
A lot of the customers of these platforms who are against this additional charge being levied on them are planning to gradually shift to other digital payments platforms like Google Pay and Amazon Pay as these companies have not yet started to charge any additional fees to their customers.
Many telecommunications firms have mobile apps of their own where that allow users to make payments for their recharges using UPI or any other payment method.
