India, Sept. 19 -- Imagine you are a contractor and build a highway. After doing it, you make money by asking service providers such as restaurants, fuel stations, garages or any other service provider to pay you for the privilege to offer their services. In much the same way, restaurants pay platforms such as Swiggy or Zomato a fee for the ability to access more consumers. No one complains.

In much the same way, if UPI is thought of as a highway or a platform, at some point, those who built it (the government in this case) will ask merchants to pay for it. Very simply put, this is the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) and everyone appears to be upset about it.

But it was only a matter of time before this would be levied. "There is no new ar...