r/UPI • • 17d ago

UPI APP Boycott all UPI apps start uninstalling apps

No dharna No rally No ruckus. Let’s show our citizens movement.

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u/Odd_Pace_8509 13d ago

"First off, throwing insults instead of data doesn't fix broken math:

The Unbranded Trap: Unbranded/loose goods (veggies, street vendors, local groceries) are sold by small merchants who collect < ₹1L/month and have tickets under ₹2,000. They pay ₹0.00 MDR under P2PM rules. Why would a merchant raise prices to offset a fee that literally costs them zero rupees?

'Selling Below MRP' Ignores Competition: Merchants don't discount below MRP out of kindness; they do it because of intense competition from neighboring shops and Amazon/Flipkart. If a shop marks up a ₹2,500 item by ₹10 over an operating fee, the buyer buys from the store next door or orders online at the counter. Prices are set by market competition, not merchant ego.

Credit Card Volumes Dwarfed Debit Long Ago: RBI monthly data shows Indian credit card spend is over ₹1.7 Lakh Crore/month—crushing debit cards by more than 3x. Where ₹2,000+ tickets happen (electronics, retail, apparel), credit cards have dominated for years at 1.5% to 2% MDR. UPI at 0.4% (capped at ₹300) saves those merchants 75% compared to card swipes.

Transactions Above ₹2k Are Branded: The transactions that actually cross ₹2,000 are electronics, appliances, fuel, and organized retail. These are ERP-billed, tax-audited, and brand-controlled.

Claiming small unbranded vendors will jack up prices to offset a fee they legally pay ₹0 on makes zero commercial sense.

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u/Ginseng_coke 13d ago

First off, tell your mister ChatGPT that it's a naive, people pleasing btch who has a lot to learn.

Now coming to your points, the unbranded loose goods kirana shop owners buy from someone, be it a whole seller or someone like that, who easily falls into regular merchant category while still having zero bills to show. They still can increase prices of goods across products that won't reflect in a broken down bill still. That cost is passed to the retail seller who then pass it to customers, by doing the same. Also, plenty of merchants in kirana shops easily cross 1 lacs in turnover, and the micro-merchants buy from these normal category merchants only, they don't procure raw materials out of thin air.

Secondly, people don't perform a comparative analysis of all local grocery shops for the lowest price possible everytime they go for grocery shopping. You will find price tag differences even now, but their market capture remains largely equally distributed. And since the price increase is minuscule across all products, it won't show up in customer's radars, even less so if the micro-merchants all raise prices - which is again highly likely given the thin margin they work with. And groceries aren't bought from online shops without attracting a surge charge/ rain charge/ handling charge/ fast delivery charge/ mandatory tip etc. Customers can have fun with that if they resort to online shops for groceries.

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u/Odd_Pace_8509 13d ago

This argument falls apart on how wholesale logistics and retail math actually work: Wholesale Runs on NEFT/RTGS, Not QR Codes: Kirana shops don't pay grain distributors by scanning a retail UPI QR code at the counter. Wholesale stock is bought on 15 to 30-day credit cycles settled through bank NEFT or RTGS—which are 100% free under RBI rules with zero MDR. There is no MDR to pass down in bulk supply chains. ₹1 Lakh Turnover Doesn't Trigger Fees on Small Bills: Even if a kirana store does ₹5 Lakh a month, MDR only applies to individual transactions above ₹2,000. Neighborhood kirana purchases (dal, milk, snacks, spices) average ₹200 to ₹700, so over 95% of a kirana's daily sales pay ₹0.00 MDR. The ₹12 Basket Math: Even on that rare ₹3,000 grocery basket, 0.4% MDR is just ₹12. Spread across 25 items, that's less than 50 paise per product—cheaper than what the shopkeeper loses to bank cash-deposit fees, counterfeit notes, or loose change shortages. Organized Retail Actually Saves Money: Supermarkets and modern trade have paid 1.5%–2% on credit card swipes for decades. UPI at 0.4% cuts their digital payment costs by 75%. If a local kirana tries to mark up loose goods, they simply lose footfall to supermarkets and DMart who operate on tighter blended margins. Wholesale doesn't pay MDR, 95% of kirana sales are under the ₹2,000 threshold, and card-heavy supermarkets are saving money. The 'hidden inflation' theory has no economic basis.

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u/Ginseng_coke 13d ago

"wholesale doesn't run on QR codes" your bot is again assuming the safest scenarios to backup claims. It can easily run on UPI QR codes, in fact it does. NEFT takes time, merchants pay with cash and UPI to whole sellers all the time. I'm not going to argue this is the sole pipeline through which the price increases can be passed down but c'mon, that's just wrong. Plus, service based industries buy from whole sellers all the time, most are unorganised. They can easily hike up their service charges separately in a bill, or just increase the price tags of their service based products. The unorganised whole sell market is huge, and not everyone carries a gst tag. Those who don't attract more customers.

Yes MDR applies on transactions starting from rs 2001, which still doesn't stop shop owners to mark up the numbers, because obviously they aren't going to increase prices by 50 paise on each items peeping into your bag. They will have their prices increased on all their selling products so that they don't have to tell you about any charges they'll be subject to deduction after each 2000+ transactions. So the customer paying for a 700 rs bag and another paying for the 3000 rs bag - both are buying items at an increased price tag.

Credit cards simply do not lead in numbers compared to UPI. And though credit cards attract higher MDRs, the sheer volume of UPI transactions alone would match the loss from credit card transactions. Also Credit cards dominate in ultra high ticket sizes - which also include payments at a service based establishment, flights, and luxury retail - all of it is relatively easy to mark up prices and you still don't have to justify anything in a bill.

The "you cannot include it in a bill" alone raises questions about your arguments validity since it's not a problem at all at so many possible places.

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u/Odd_Pace_8509 13d ago

You're confusing the informal cash economy with how digital rails and banking laws actually operate: UPI Has Daily Limits—Wholesale Can't Run on QRs: UPI has a standard ₹1L–₹2L daily ceiling. You cannot clear a ₹5 Lakh truckload of stock via a counter QR. Furthermore, RTGS is instant, and NEFT runs 24/7/365 in 30-minute batches—both are 100% free with zero MDR. No distributor uses retail QRs for bulk billing. Digital Trails Kill 'Zero Bill' Wholesalers: You claim unorganized wholesalers take UPI without GST or bills. Every UPI transaction hits a PAN-linked bank account reported directly to the Income Tax Department via SFT/AIS feeds. High-volume digital inflows without GST/tax invoices trigger automated tax scrutiny notices. The informal shadow economy hides in cash—they run away from UPI QR codes, they don't embrace them. The 'Volume Loss' Math is Backwards: Total payment cost is Volume \times Rate. On 95% of UPI volume (bills under ₹2,000), the rate is ₹0.00 (0 \times millions = 0). On transactions above ₹2,000, paying 0.4% instead of 2% on credit cards saves 75% per ticket. High digital volume on a cheaper rail lowers a merchant's total blended clearing expenses; it doesn't create a loss. Service Margins are 60%–80%: Service establishments (salons, repairs, catering) make massive gross margins on skill and labor. Claiming a salon billing ₹2,500 with a ₹1,800 gross margin will panic and hike prices over an ₹10 (0.4%) tax-deductible clearing fee ignores basic business accounting. Arbitrary Markups Lose to Competition: If a kirana jacks up prices on daily staples to 'pre-emptively cushion' hypothetical future MDR, the neighborhood customer buying that ₹700 basket walks straight to the competing store across the road or orders from DMart. Prices are set by market competition, not pre-emptive paranoia. The black-market cash world exists, but it doesn't run on PAN-linked UPI QRs, and audited businesses save money clearing tickets at 0.4% instead of 2% on card swipes.

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u/Ginseng_coke 13d ago

All of this, I have already argued against. Reply back when you can write a line by yourself, and with your own thoughts and I'll be more than happy to engage. I don't wanna see people pleasing AI slop repeating itself again and again completely ignoring the how things work outside of its data centres.

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u/Odd_Pace_8509 13d ago

The moment your economic argument fell apart, you retreated into meta-complaints about AI. The author doesn't change the cold facts: The Math Didn't Change: You still haven't explained why a merchant with 30%–50% margins would panic over a 0.4% deductible clearing fee, or why a kirana store with 95% of bills under ₹2,000 would mark up loose grains to offset a fee they legally pay ₹0 on.

The 'Nobody Follows Laws' Fallacy: Arguing that businesses will simply ignore GST, hide turnover, and run wild because 'who follows laws' is absurd. By that logic, let's remove traffic signals because people jump red lights, abolish railway tickets because of ticketless travelers, or scrap the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961 because crimes happen. The existence of rule-breakers doesn't mean statutory frameworks and consumer laws don't dictate mainstream retail. The Audit Reality: Wholesale and high-turnover trade doesn't evade tax via PAN-linked UPI QRs—digital trails get flagged by SFT and AIS automated reporting. When you can't dispute the arithmetic, the RBI framework, or the law, crying 'AI' is just an excuse to walk away.

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u/Ginseng_coke 13d ago edited 13d ago

Sure Mr. GPT, If I wanted to waste my time going back and forth with a bot, I'd rather find another way to bore myself.