🖋️ *From The Desk of Abhijeet Rane* A new 0.4% fee on merchant UPI transfers above ₹2,000, scheduled from October 15, has triggered concern among retailers, who warn that some small merchants could return to cash to avoid additional transaction costs. The policy question is not whether payment infrastructure should be free forever—banks and payment providers incur genuine costs—but how those costs should be distributed without weakening one of India’s most successful digital