In a bid to discourage cash transactions, the country’s second-largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has decided to steeply increase the fees for savings account holders on a slew of activities involving cash.

HDFC Bank has decided to steeply raise the charges on certain transactions, capping cash component in others and also introducing charges on certain transactions from March 1, a bank official told PTI on Friday.

The bank has capped the third-party transactions at ₹25,000 a day, reduced the number of free cash transactions at branches to four from five earlier and also raised the fee for non-free transactions by a steep 50 per cent to ₹150, it said on its website.

Earlier, it used to allow ₹50,000 cash transactions, both withdrawals and deposits per day, the official said, adding the review is only for salary and savings accounts.

The bank has also capped the free cash transactions at home branches, including deposits and withdrawals at branches at ₹2 lakh, above which customers will have to pay a minimum of ₹150 or ₹5 per thousand.

For non-home branches, the free transactions is only ₹25,000 after which fees set in at the same level, he said.