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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.)

Turning the Law against Injustice

Writer: Bhalchandra Chorghade
Bhalchandra Chorghade
6 hours ago
2 min read

Part - 6

Name: Navi Pillay

Where: Durban, South Africa

Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, the South African jurist of Indian Tamil origin who spent decades challenging racial discrimination and fighting for human dignity, recently won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote peace and international law. Her achievement is the culmination of a remarkable journey from apartheid-era South Africa to the highest institutions of international justice.

 

Born on September 23, 1941, in Durban, Pillay grew up in a society where racial segregation systematically denied black South Africans equal rights and opportunities. Her parents were of Indian Tamil origin, and her early experiences of discrimination shaped her determination to use the law as an instrument of social change.

 

Pillay studied law at the University of Natal and established her own legal practice in 1967, becoming the first woman to do so in the province of Natal. During the apartheid years, she defended anti-apartheid activists, including political prisoners associated with Nelson Mandela, and challenged abuses against detainees.

 

Her legal career broke another barrier in 1995, when she became the first black woman appointed to South Africa’s High Court. That same year, she joined the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which was established to prosecute those responsible for the 1994 genocide.

 

Her work at the tribunal became a landmark in international criminal justice. In the 1998 Akayesu judgment, the tribunal recognised that rape and sexual violence could constitute acts of genocide when committed with the intention of destroying a protected group. The ruling helped establish an important precedent in the prosecution of sexual violence during armed conflict.

 

Pillay subsequently served as a judge at the International Criminal Court from 2003 to 2008. She then became United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, serving from 2008 to 2014. In that role, she advocated the protection of vulnerable communities, gender equality and accountability for human rights violations.

 

Her commitment to international justice continued beyond the United Nations. From 2021 to 2025, she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel. Since 2019, she has also served as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice in the genocide case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar.

 

The Norwegian Nobel Committee recognised Pillay for helping strengthen international legal institutions and advance accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The award also underscores the importance of the rule of law at a time when international justice faces mounting political pressure.


Beyond the courtroom, Pillay has supported efforts to advance women’s rights and equality.


Pillay’s life demonstrates that peace is not merely the absence of conflict but also requires justice, accountability and the protection of human dignity.

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