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What can Asia, Global South learn from India’s new digital payment fee?

What can Asia, Global South learn from India’s new digital payment fee?
South China Morning Post Thursday 24 September 2026, 10:02 UTC By Biman Mukherji 1 min read
Key Points

For millions of Indians, buying a cup of chai or groceries from roadside vendors has come to mean reaching for their phones rather than wallets – a habit made possible by a system that has so far charged consumers nothing for such everyday transactions. Now, a decade after the government launched the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India is asking some merchants to pay for the hugely popular system – raising questions over whether it can preserve the low-cost model that drove its mass...

For millions of Indians, buying a cup of chai or groceries from roadside vendors has come to mean reaching for their phones rather than wallets – a habit made possible by a system that has so far charged consumers nothing for such everyday transactions. Now, a decade after the government launched the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India is asking some merchants to pay for the hugely popular system – raising questions over whether it can preserve the low-cost model that drove its mass adoption... [Image text:] Paytm PhonePe BHIMLP paytn:
Asia (LOCATION) Global South (LOCATION) India (LOCATION) Indians (ORG) the Unified Payments Interface (ORG) UPI (ORG)
Originally published by South China Morning Post Read original →

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