--- layout: default title: "TSPA #0014" categories: [TSPA, TSPA English] description: "TSPA #0014, a comic strip about UPI payments and Merchant Discount Rates." permalink: /tspa/0014/ created: 2026-09-16 authors: [Tito Dutta] characters: [Ti, Mi] --- {% include author-date.html %}

## Transcript **Frame 1 - Mi:** "So, they are imposing taxes on UPI payments from 15 October?" **Frame 2 - Ti:** "Not a tax, but MDR. Merchant Discount Rate." **Frame 3 - Mi:** "So, a consumer does not need to pay this extra amount?" **Frame 3 - Ti:** "No." **Frame 4 - Ti:** "A consumer does not have to pay this fee. This is on merchants, and that too above a certain amount." **Frame 5 - Ti:** "MDR is the charge that merchants have to pay to the payment service provider for accepting certain UPI payments. For most merchant payments, it is still zero. And person-to-person UPI payments remain free." **Frame 6 - Mi:** "I don't know, but I am having a deja vu." **Frame 6 - Ti:** "What?" **Frame 7 - Mi:** "I remember the days when, while trying to pay using a credit card, shop owners used to ask the customer to pay the fee." **Frame 8 - Mi:** "How much can one individual fight at every purchase? Hope those days won't return." ## Visual details The eight-panel comic shows Ti and Mi in an urban shopping setting. Mi asks about reports of taxes on UPI payments, while Ti explains the distinction between a tax and Merchant Discount Rate (MDR), including who pays the fee. Mi then recalls the experience of shop owners asking customers to pay credit-card fees and ends by expressing concern that such a situation should not return. {% include navbox-tspa.html %}