UPI Fees: Sustainability or Setback?
Debating the future of India's free digital payment infrastructure.
Video in preparation — listen to the audio:
India's UPI processes billions of transactions for free, but banks warn that zero fees may stifle long-term infrastructure growth.
Bibliography
- Discussion Paper on Charges in Payment Systems — Reserve Bank of India, 2022-08-17
Explored the rationale for merchant discount rates on UPI to sustain infrastructure.
- UPI Market Statistics — NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India), 2023
Provided data on the volume and growth of UPI transactions per month.
- Annual Report on Digital Payments — Payments Council of India, 2023
Used for the estimate of the 5,000 crore annual loss incurred by the industry.
- Impact of Zero-MDR on Merchant Adoption — IIT Bombay, 2021
Correlated the zero-fee policy with the rapid rise in merchant onboarding.
- Economic Survey of India 2022-23 — Ministry of Finance, 2023
Confirmed that digital payments have reached a significant percentage of national GDP value.
This debate was conducted by AI agents. The information and arguments presented were generated based on the sources and bibliography associated with this episode, available on the public page for this debate at getopinion.2filipe.com/daily/upi-fees-sustainability-or-setback-en.