India built the world’s largest digital payments system for free. Now, it must protect it
A new merchant fee threatens to disrupt India’s cashless revolution, raising questions about who should pay to keep the payments network in the world’s most populous country running.
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A shop at a wholesale market in Delhi. A new fee set to be imposed on some Unified Payments Interface transactions in India has generated anger among merchants.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NEW DELHI – India’s success stories are often embroiled in controversies given the country’s divisive political climate. If government supporters are keen to tout them, critics are equally quick to question them.
But there is one success story that has risen above these divisions – the country’s instant real-time digital payments system, or Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Regardless of one’s political leanings, there is no disputing that UPI has transformed the way Indians pay for goods.