New Delhi, Sept. 17 -- The imposition of a charge on payments to merchants made using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has evoked wide disappointment. As the government has emphasized, sellers must bear this fee, not buyers. Transactions of up to Rs.2,000 are exempt, while the rest (barring a few special categories) will have to part with a 0.4% levy with a cap of Rs.300.

This will be shared by payment apps and the banks hosting the accounts at both ends of the transfer. The rules also leave person-to-person payments charge-free. The fee is nominal, and while merchants may or may not sneakily raise prices to make up for it, it's vital that this platform can sustain itself and isn't starved of funds needed for cybersecurity and upgrad...