The note issued on Friday said no debit or credit card of any bank has been restricted for usage on any of the gateways and this can be verified by a third-party audit The note issued on Friday said no debit or credit card of any bank has been restricted for usage on any of the gateways and this can be verified by a third-party audit

Reacting to news reports that a squabble between banks and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) over fees has resulted in the latter disallowing a number of lenders from using its payment gateway for debit cards, the Railways on Friday said IRCT has offered seven payment gateways for accepting domestic debit/credit cards and had not imposed any restrictions.

Bankers had told Financial Express that IRCTC had stopped them from operating on the website because they were unwilling to share a portion of the convenience fees earned on customer transactions.

The note issued on Friday said no debit or credit card of any bank has been restricted for usage on any of the gateways and this can be verified by a third-party audit. It said cards of any Indian bank can be accepted on any of the seven payment gateways. In addition to this, the note said, direct integration has been provided for some banks. But since this became an additional cost, IRCT had asked the banks to share a part of the transaction fee. But the note said IRCTC has since forfeited this fee, asking the banks to share the same with customers.

Currently, banks are allowed to charge an MDR no higher than 0.25per cent on transactions of up to Rs 1,000 and a maximum of 0.5 per cent on transactions of values between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000. Bigger transactions attract an MDR of 1per cent. These rates are based on temporary guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during demonetisation and extended thereafter.

Highlighting that roughly 66 per cent of all transactions were under Rs 1,000, IRCTC asked the banks to strictly follow the RBI guidelines. The IRCTC note said if banks are willing to offer zero transaction charges to customers, then it could extent direct debit card integration on the site.

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