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Let us be precise about what has changed. From the middle of October, a Merchant Discount Rate, or MDR, of 0.4 per cent will apply to person-to-merchant UPI payments above two thousand rupees. The crucial word in that sentence is merchant. An MDR is, by its very definition, a charge borne on the merchant’s side of a transaction and not the customer’s. Person-to-person transfers remain entirely free, whatever the sum involved, and payments to merchants up to two thousand rupees remain free as well. For the daily business of ordinary life, the groceries, the auto fare, the cup of tea, nothing whatsoever changes.