RBI Committee Recommends Hike in ATM Charges; Limit Cash Withdrawals to Rs 5,000 per Transaction

Print 24-Jun-2020 , 09:43:18 am | By CASANSAAR

A committee appointed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), headed by chief executive of Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and consisting of representatives from all stakeholders, except bank customers, has recommended an increase in interchange charges for all transactions carried out on automated teller machines (ATMs) across the country. The committee also wants to cap cash withdrawal limit at Rs5,000 per transaction and levy charges for any larger amount. In fact, the committee’s report was also kept out of public domain by RBI, till Hyderabad-based techie Srikanth L filed an appeal under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to get a copy of the report. But more about it later.

As announced in its monetary policy announcement of 6 June 2019, RBI appointed a committee headed by VG Kannan, chief executive (CEO) of Indian Banks' Association (IBA), to review the ATM interchange fee structure. While the committee had submitted its report, it is not known if RBI has accepted these recommendations.

For transactions at ATMs in all centres with a population of one million and above, the committee has recommended an increase of 16% or Rs2 to Rs17 from Rs15 for financial transactions and to Rs7 from Rs5 for non-financial transactions. For usage of ATMs in all other centres with a population of less than one million, the committee recommends charges to be increased to 24% on a blended basis. The charges would be increased by Rs3 to Rs18 from Rs15 for financial transactions and to Rs8 from Rs5 for non-financial transactions.

The committee says, "While the recommended changes as above in interchange do not cover the complete cost per transaction, it is felt that given the asymmetry in acquiring and issuing transaction volumes, a via media needs to be arrived at between issuing banks and acquiring banks. Hence an ATM interchange increase to cover the full costs of running an ATM is not recommended. Increased transaction volumes are expected to offset the difference in cost per transaction and weighted average interchange recommended. Further, the White Label ATMs (WLAs) also should make efforts to increase the number of transactions at their ATMs which will bring unit costs down."

Other members in the committee were Dilip Asbe, CEO of National Payments Corp of India (NPCI), Giri Kumar Nair, chief general manager of State Bank of India (SBI), S Sampath Kumar, group head for liability products at HDFC Bank, K Srinivas, director of Confederation of ATM Industry and Sanjeev Patel, CEO of Tata Communications Payment Solutions Ltd.

Bank customers have no representation in this committee as well, as it has become the norm with RBI to ignore and neglect the last person who uses and pays for all banking services including ATM charges. #casansaar (Source - MoneyLife)

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