New Delhi, Sept. 18 -- Former Standard Chartered Bank Managing Director Sanjeev Mehta has said the introduction of a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on select UPI transactions is necessary to support the cost of maintaining and expanding the country's digital payments infrastructure, amid a debate over whether the new charge could raise costs for merchants and consumers.

Speaking on the ongoing debate over UPI charges, Mehta spoke to ANI on the sidelines of Semicon 2.0 and said India's creation of real-time payment infrastructure through UPI had been a major development, but maintaining such technology infrastructure involved costs that needed to be borne by the ecosystem.

"Someone will bear that cost," Mehta said, adding that running the ...