India, Sept. 16 -- Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has a rightful claim to be in an elite club of game changing financial innovations in India. It took digital payments from point-of-sale machines in elite sanitised spaces to the proverbial last man in the queue. This was made possible by a trinity of widespread financial inclusion, mobile based internet and, last but not the least, free rollout of UPI.

The last of this trinity has now been tweaked to make it quasi payable. To be sure, a large part of the UPI payment universe, including person-to-person payments, person-to-business transactions below a certain threshold and regular payment mandates such as mutual fund contributions will continue to remain free of charge. The rest will h...