India is taking steps to reshape the business model behind its Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a widely used payments network built by the government, via new legislation that could pave the way for merchants to pay charges on some UPI transactions.
The legislation (PDF) lays the legal groundwork for a potential overhaul of India’s zero-merchant-discount-rate (MDR) regime, under which businesses have not paid fees to accept UPI payments since 2020.