Mumbai/IBNS, Sept. 16 -- Entrepreneur Ashneer Grover has criticised the Centre's new Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) framework for specified UPI merchant transactions above Rs 2,000, arguing that the cost of processing a UPI payment remains the same regardless of the transaction amount.

In an interview with Times Now, the former BharatPe co-founder questioned the logic behind imposing MDR on certain merchant payments while keeping person-to-person (P2P) UPI transactions free.

Grover argued that the underlying cost of operating the UPI infrastructure does not change significantly based on whether a payment is a small QR transaction or a larger transfer.

He also cited the National Payments Corporation of India's (NPCI) financial position an...