India built the biggest digital payments miracle: Now comes the bill

India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become the world's largest real-time payment network with 550 million users and 23.6 billion transactions monthly, but the government is now considering introducing merchant fees of 0.3-0.5% on larger business transactions, potentially ending a decade of free digital payments. While consumer and person-to-person payments would remain free, the introduction of fees raises questions about whether UPI's growth and success could be weakened by pricing changes.