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By:

Sumit Ranjan Das

21 August 2024 at 4:08:59 pm

UPI Must Stay Free

AI Generated Image Yesterday, I went to my neighbourhood shop to buy aloo chop and vegetable chop to eat with muri. I reached for my phone to pay by UPI, as I do for almost everything. The shopkeeper stopped me. “This is the last time we’ll accept UPI. From tomorrow, CASH ONLY.” I didn’t argue or explain that payments up to Rs. 2,000 remain free. It would have been a waste of breath. So I let it go, but I kept thinking about it on the walk home because I think I know what he was afraid of....

UPI Must Stay Free

AI Generated Image Yesterday, I went to my neighbourhood shop to buy aloo chop and vegetable chop to eat with muri. I reached for my phone to pay by UPI, as I do for almost everything. The shopkeeper stopped me. “This is the last time we’ll accept UPI. From tomorrow, CASH ONLY.” I didn’t argue or explain that payments up to Rs. 2,000 remain free. It would have been a waste of breath. So I let it go, but I kept thinking about it on the walk home because I think I know what he was afraid of. Picture a vegetable vendor with a pushcart at the corner of your lane. Call him Ramesh. He studied up to Class 8. Two years ago, he put a QR code on his cart because someone told him one thing: “Bhaiya, UPI is free. The money comes straight to your bank.” That one sentence did more for Digital India than any seminar. No card machine, no fee, no paperwork. Now tell Ramesh that a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) may apply to specified transactions above Rs. 2,000, subject to exemptions. He won’t argue. He will put up a board: CASH ONLY. MDR is the fee a merchant pays to accept a digital payment, and UPI has been free for merchants since 2020. The new framework proposes a fee of 0.4 per cent on specified merchant transactions above Rs. 2,000, with a cap of Rs. 300 on transactions above Rs. 75,000. Payments up to Rs. 2,000 remain free. Person-to-person transfers are not covered, and under the announced plan, customers are not charged directly. On a Rs. 10,000 merchant payment, the merchant would pay Rs. 40. Small merchants receiving less than Rs. 1,00,000 a month through UPI were proposed to be exempt. One report adds that the committee was reportedly considering exempting businesses with annual turnover of up to Rs. 40 lakh. On October 13, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said the fee, due to be implemented on October 15, would be introduced immediately after Diwali, on a date to be notified separately. The decision merley postpones the fee. Consider Ramesh again. Suppose he sells Rs. 5,000 worth of vegetables a day, mostly through payments of Rs. 30 to Rs. 300. That amounts to around Rs. 1,50,000 a month, or roughly Rs. 18 lakh a year. Every one of his payments is below Rs. 2,000, so under the proposal, they remain free. But his monthly receipts exceed Rs. 1 lakh, which means he cannot simply assume that the small-merchant exemption covers him. Who will tell him? Who will explain it in Bengali, Hindi or Maithili, at his cart, in two minutes? A vendor who cannot understand the rules will choose the option that feels safest: cash. Cash is not the enemy. But for a small merchant, it also means hunting for change and losing customers who do not have it, facing the risk of theft, loss and counterfeit notes, spending time counting, storing and depositing money, and having fewer digital records to show a bank when seeking credit. “Free” does not mean UPI costs nothing to run. Security, fraud control, banking systems and customer support all require money. In March 2025, the Union Cabinet approved an incentive of Rs. 1,500 crore for low-value BHIM UPI merchant transactions for the financial year 2024–25. Genuine welfare must never be treated as a piggy bank. Every rupee, whether spent on welfare or infrastructure, should deliver greater value. Five measures would help keep UPI simple. First, person-to-person UPI transfers must remain free. Sending money to family should never come with an unexpected charge. Second, protection for small merchants must be straightforward. Thela-walas, tea stalls and kirana shops need one clear exemption, not five clever ones. Third, UPI must be funded transparently. The government and relevant institutions should publish what it costs to run the system, how much public money supports it, how much any proposed fee collects and what results follow. Fourth, the rules must be explained in local languages. A one-page notice or a short voice message through a payment app would reach Ramesh faster than a 20-page circular. Finally, the impact must be measured before any fee is extended. Changes in small-merchant acceptance and transaction volumes should guide the next step. India did not build UPI by making it clever. It built it by making it simple and free. (The writer is a Cost and Management Accountant and founder of TaxoDas. Views personal.)

India working on logistics of Tahawwur Rana's extradition

PTI
Feb 14, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Feb 18, 2025

Tahawwur Rana

Washington: India is working on the logistics of Tahawwur Rana's surrender and extradition from the US, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has said, as President Donald Trump announced that his administration has given the go-ahead to extradite the 26/11 terror attack accused “to face justice".

“This is an issue on which the US authorities have taken very clear decisions. I think you've seen the President announce it himself from the White House podium" the decision of the US to extradite Rana, Misri said at a press conference here on Thursday.


During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Tahawwur Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.


In response to a question by PTI on the timeframe by when Rana will be extradited to India, Misri said: "We are working on the logistics of his surrender and extradition to India. There are a few final steps to be completed. The two sides are in touch on this particular issue.”


The India-US joint statement issued during the Prime Minister's visit to the US notes that Modi and Trump reaffirmed that the global scourge of terrorism must be fought and terrorist safe havens eliminated from every corner of the world.

“They committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups, including Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Jaish-e Mohammad, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in order to prevent heinous acts like the attacks in Mumbai on 26/11 and the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021," the joint statement said.


“Recognising a shared desire to bring to justice those who would harm our citizens, the US announced that the extradition to India of Tahawwur Rana has been approved," it said.


The leaders further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, and Pathankot attacks and ensure that its territory is not used to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks.

"The leaders also pledged to work together to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors,” the joint statement added.

Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles. He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.

Speaking at the joint press meet, Trump said "Today I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters and very evil people of the world, and having to do with the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack, to face justice in India. So, he is going back to India to face justice."


The extradition of Rana was cleared by the US Supreme Court in January as it rejected his review petition in the case.


India last month said it was working with American authorities for the early extradition of Rana.


"The US Supreme Court on January 21 declined to hear a petition from the accused. We are now working with the US side on procedural issues for early extradition to India of the accused in the Mumbai terror attack," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said.


In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune.

-PTI

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