ATM usage charges

waiver (on ATM transaction charges

all transaction charges for debit and credit cards

CHENNAI: With effects of demonetisation still being felt across the country, customers are upset that the government has not rolled backor capped debit card transaction fees, till situations turns normal.“The industry was expecting the) to continue even after December 31,” said Navroze Dastur, managing director, NCR Corporation, India and South Asia. But the RBI, was silent on ATM transaction charges, which in effect made banks resume charging the ATM transaction fee.“The first five transactions will be free of cost. After that it will be left to the discretion of the banks and the card category of the customer. Banks generally have an agreement with individual customers on charges levied. Many banks were not charging premium customers before demonetisation,” said V Balasubramanian, president, transaction processing and ATM service, FSS.Before demonetisation, banks like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and ICICI Bank were charging Rs 15 per transaction as they had a wider ATM network and larger users than other banks. Most other banks charged Rs 20 per ATM transaction before the November 8 announcement. SBI and PNB did not respond to request for comments on current charges for ATM usage.“Cash is not freely available. There are only about 20% of ATMs operational. The government should seriously look to subsidising digital transactions by creating the Dipayan fund, as recommended by Ratan Watal. Because if going digital is a forced measure, customers should not be bearing the full cost of it,” said Balasubramanian.While MDR or merchant discount rates have been capped, merchants on many occasions have not passed “waiver of charges” to customers before December 31 or after. Uptil December 31, the apex bank had waived, but many customers said that they had been charged by jewellers, clothing retailers.Going into the New Year, the RBI has said that MDR ( merchant discount rate ) on transactions will be capped at 0.5% for transactions up to Rs 1,000, and 0.25% for Rs 2,000. But merchants need not necessarily pass on the discount to customers, said payment companies.