The Financial Times headlined that cash is “making a comeback” in digital India, against a merchant fee on UPI. The item is dated 18 October. The body beyond the paywall is thin in extracts. What can be checked independently is this: on 13 October NPCI delayed a 0.4% merchant charge on UPI payments above 2,000 rupees, from 15 October until after Diwali (8 November). This is not payment advice.

UPI has been kept free for merchants since January 2020, to pull people off cash. In September the system processed 24.07 billion transactions, 29.37 trillion rupees, NPCI said. About 95% of merchant payments sit under the 2,000-rupee threshold and would not be charged. Person-to-person stays exempt. Merchants taking under 100,000 rupees a month on UPI, too. The fee cap, in the original notice, was 300 rupees.

Retailers and petrol stations pushed back. Some said they might stop taking UPI. CNA found, in Mumbai, a clothes seller who would steer customers to cash. A LocalCircles survey, reported by Mint, said 76% of users would move large payments to card or cash if the shop passed the fee on. That survey is not NPCI.

RBI governor Sanjay Malhotra said he did not expect a large drop in volumes. Banks and processors want money for infrastructure, fraud and servers; NPCI put UPI’s annual cost at about 200 billion rupees. The delay is a festive-season pause, not a cancellation. A new date was not, on 13 October, specified.

The FT headline about cash’s comeback is a ground reading, not an RBI series. Cash never left. UPI became dominant at many tills. The fee, if it lands after Diwali, hits value, not count: payments above 2,000 rupees are few by number but a large slice of the sum.

Until NPCI publishes a new calendar, 0.4% remains a postponed rule, not a live charge. The Mumbai shop that “expects” to handle more notes is a voice, not a monthly cash-in-circulation print.

Image: Dudva, Crawford Market, Mumbai, CC0, Wikimedia Commons; an archive market, not a UPI shop in October 2026.

Sources consulted: Cash is making a comeback as India raises fees on digital payments - Financial Times; India retailers weigh impact of upcoming UPI transaction fees - CNA.