UPI's Free Ride Ends Oct 15: India Tests Whether 0.4% Can Survive Merchant Fury

India's UPI — the 14-billion-transaction-a-month payments juggernaut — is ending its seven-year free ride on October 15, and the merchant backlash is already reshaping the country's digital payments landscape before a single rupee of fee has been collected.

Evidence For: The Math Actually Works

The new NPCI framework is surgically targeted to minimize disruption:

• 0.4% MDR applies only to person-to-merchant (P2M) UPI...