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Correspondent

21 August 2024 at 10:20:16 am

Fee Signal

The government’s decision to create a legal framework for levying charges on UPI transactions has understandably triggered concern, even though it insists that ordinary users and small merchants will continue to enjoy free payments. The proposed amendment does not impose a fee on UPI today. But it removes the statutory barrier to one being imposed in the future, making the government’s reassurance less than the final word. The government argues that this is a measure for UPI’s long-term...

Fee Signal

The government’s decision to create a legal framework for levying charges on UPI transactions has understandably triggered concern, even though it insists that ordinary users and small merchants will continue to enjoy free payments. The proposed amendment does not impose a fee on UPI today. But it removes the statutory barrier to one being imposed in the future, making the government’s reassurance less than the final word. The government argues that this is a measure for UPI’s long-term sustainability. The world’s largest real-time payments system, which processed 2,366 crore transactions worth Rs. 29.9 lakh crore in July alone, cannot indefinitely depend on subsidies as transaction volumes, cybersecurity requirements and infrastructure costs rise. A nominal Merchant Discount Rate on larger merchant transactions, it says, would help create a more sustainable ecosystem without burdening ordinary users. That argument has merit. But so does the concern that a payment system which became a national habit precisely because it was cheap and frictionless should not slowly acquire a price tag. Once the legal machinery for charging exists, there is no guarantee that the boundary between large merchants and small ones, or between merchants and consumers, will remain permanently fixed. The Finance Minister has clarified that any Merchant Discount Rate will apply only to a limited set of merchant transactions above a threshold and will be nominal, well below card-payment rates. The details will eventually be decided by the UPI and Services Steering Committee headed by the National Payments Corporation of India. In other words, there is no charge on the table for the ordinary UPI user today. But there is now a legal mechanism for charges to be introduced tomorrow. That is precisely why any alarm, though exaggerated, cannot simply be dismissed. The government, through its clarification, has reassured that UPI’s free-to-consumer model remains intact. The important issue is whether its financing model can evolve without undermining the habits that made it revolutionary. UPI succeeded partly because it made digital payments cheaper and simpler than alternatives. There is also a larger principle at stake. UPI is not merely another commercial payments platform. It is the product of public investment, regulatory architecture and private innovation. The state should therefore be wary of treating its sustainability as an ordinary market problem. The sensible answer lies between free-for-all subsidies and indiscriminate fees: transparent thresholds, genuinely low MDRs, strong protection for small merchants and an absolute firewall around ordinary consumers. The government should publish the economic case for any future charge, including its effect on merchants and consumers. UPI was built on trust as much as technology. The government is right to protect its remarkable achievement. It should remember that keeping UPI free is not merely a political promise. It is part of the product.

Tibetan refugees protest in Mumbai

Supporters from the Tibetan Youth Congress react during a protest at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Monday against China's new ethnic unity law. Pic: Bhushan Koyande
Supporters from the Tibetan Youth Congress react during a protest at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Monday against China's new ethnic unity law. Pic: Bhushan Koyande

Mumbai: Over 250 Tibetan refugees, activists and members of the Friends of Tibet took out a rally and demonstrated near the Chinese Consulate in Mumbai as part of an international action to protest against China’s new Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law (EUPPL).


The Tibetans living in Mumbai were joined by other protestors from Bhandara (Maharashtra) and Mundgod (Karnataka) and a relay hunger strike was also taken up the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, said Coordinator, Tenzin Tsundue.


The day started with a silent rally from Rajgriha, the home of the late Dr. B. R. Ambedkar to his memorial, Chaityabhoomi, both in Dadar.


Another rally-cum-demonstration was carried out near Nariman Point where the Chinese Consulate is located and at the Azad Maidan, said Tsundue.


“We carried out a peaceful protest at Nariman Point and wanted to go and submit a memorandum to the Chinese Consul-General. However, the police prevented us, detained a few Tibetans and sent them back to Azad Maidan,” Tsundue told ‘The Perfect Voice’, from the venue.


He said that Tibetans and others like Uyghurs are strongly opposed to the new law which came into effect last week, despite criticism from the United Nations Organisation (UNO), Taiwan, TYC and human rights groups worldwide.


Their prime concerns are that the (EUPPL) could place further restrictions on the minorities’ rights, deepen assimilation policies targeting the ethnic groups and dilute the protection to their respective languages, cultures and traditions.


China’s Denial

One provision is said to allow individuals to be held accountable for alleged violations of the Chinese laws even outside the country, raising apprehensions it could target the government’s critics or campaigners abroad.


However, China has rubbished all allegations of rights abuses against the ethnic minority group, and reiterated that its policies aim to promote social stability, security and economic development for all. Unconvinced, Tibetans and Uyghurs have urged the international community to build pressure on China to strike down the EUPPL as “it aims to erase the minority communities”.


The Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan has argued that Taiwanese are already facing high risks travelling to China and now the country has “yet another law to fabricate charges”, and it could deploy it “to further suppress and prosecute human rights activists”.


TYC slams China

The TYC said that the international action today was dedicated to the memory of the supreme sacrifice of Lobga Rangzen who self-immolated himself outside the UN Headquarters in New York on July 2 to draw the world’s attention to the cause of Tibet.


Rejecting the new law, the TYC said: “This legislation is not a law of unity but a political instrument to force assimilation of nations living under Chinese occupation, like Tibet, East Turkestan, Southern Mongolia, and Manchuria. Behind the language of ‘ethnic unity’ lies an agenda of Unilateral control by institutionalising policies aimed at assimilating Tibetans through political domination.”


It accused China of attempts “to erase national identities by suppressing distinct languages, undermining religious institutions, rewriting history, destroying cultural heritage, separating children from their communities through state run colonial boarding schools, and replacing distinct identities with loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party”.

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