Ministry of Finance08-July, 2019 16:51 IST
Bank Service
Charges
As per extant guidelines of
Reserve Bank of India (RBI), following basic minimum facilities to the Basic
Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA) are provided free of charge and without
any requirement for maintaining minimum balance in the account:
i.
Deposit of
cash at bank branch as well as ATMs/Cash Deposit Machines (CDMs).
ii.
Receipt/
credit of money through any electronic channel or by means of deposit
/collection of cheques drawn by Central/State Government agencies and
departments.
iii.
No limit on
number and value of deposits that can be made in a month.
iv.
Minimum of
four withdrawals in a month, including ATM withdrawals.
v.
ATM Card or
ATM-cum-Debit Card.
Accordingly,
as on March, 2019 the above facilities are provided to 57.3 crore BSBD accounts
(including 35.27 crore PMJDY accounts) free of charge.
In addition to the above, banks may provide additional value-added
services, including issue of cheque book, beyond the above minimum facilities,
which may/may not be priced (in non-discriminatory manner) subject to
disclosure. The availment of such additional services are to made at the option
of the customers. However, while offering such additional services, banks shall
not require the customer to maintain a minimum balance and offering such
additional services would also not make BSBD account a non-BSBD Account, so
long as the prescribed minimum services are provided free of charge by the
banks.
For accounts other than BSBD
accounts, as per Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s Master Circular on “Customer
Service in Banks” dated July 1, 2015, banks are permitted to fix service
charges on various services rendered by them, as per their Board approved
policy, while ensuring that the charges are reasonable and not out of line with
the average cost of providing these services. Banks have been advised to
identify basic services and the principles to be adopted/ followed by them for
ensuring reasonableness in fixing such charges. They are also advised to take
steps to ensure that customers are made aware of the service charges upfront
and changes in the service charges are implemented only with the prior notice
to the customers.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
vide its circular on ‘National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Real Time
Gross Settlement (RTGS) systems – Waiver of charges’ dated 11.06.2019, has
decided that with effect from July 1, 2019, processing charges and time varying
charges levied on banks by RBI for outward transactions undertaken using the
RTGS system, as also the processing charges levied by RBI for transactions
processed in NEFT system would be waived by the Reserve Bank. The banks are
also advised by RBI to pass on the benefits to their customers for undertaking
transactions using RTGS and NEFT systems.
The
quantum of charges (Rs in crore) collected by RBI since 2016-17 is as follows:
|
Year (April to
March)
|
RTGS
|
NEFT
|
Total
|
|
|
|
Membership Charges
|
Processing + Time Varying Charges
|
NEFT Clearing house Charges
|
|
|
FY 2016-17
|
0.89
|
45.94
|
38.71
|
85.54
|
|
FY 2017-18
|
0.94
|
52.30
|
46.28
|
99.52
|
|
FY 2018-19
|
0.99
|
56.37
|
52.92
|
110.29
|
|
FY 2019-20 (April-June)
|
0.25
|
14.69
|
13.62
|
28.56
|
Source: RBI
This waiver of processing and time
varying charges by RBI on banks will accordingly reduce the cost of RTGS and
NEFT transactions for the customers and will give fillip to digital fund
movement.
Following RBI guidelines, rural
branches and Financial Literacy Centres (FLCs) of banks conduct camps for
financial literacy across the country. Rural branches and FLCs of banks have
been advised by RBI to use the audio visuals on basic financial awareness
messages inter-alia including electronic payment systems NEFT/RTGS prepared by
National Centre for Financial Education.
This
was stated by Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State for Finance &
Corporate Affairs in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
*****
DSM/RM/PD
(Release ID :191343)
