The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued new rules applicable from 1 August 2021. These include changes in ATM withdrawals and round-the-clock services for salary, pension and EMI payments through National Automated Clearing House (NACH), influencing transactions.
The interchange fee charged by banks on ATM transactions has been increased. The charges have been changed to Rs.17 for financial transactions and Rs.6 for non-financial transactions. Starting from August, customers are allowed to make five free transactions from the ATMs of their banks, inclusive of financial and non-financial transactions. However, for other banks, three free transactions are allowed for metropolitan cities and five free transactions for non-metropolitan cities. This change makes transactions apart from the free limit more expensive.
The fee increase is due to the cost of deployment and maintenance of ATMs incurred by banks and white label ATM operators, balancing expectations of stakeholders and customers’ convenience.
RBI has also allowed banks to charge customers Rs.21 from Rs.20 per transaction starting from 1 January 2022. These charges are for transactions beyond the free limit.
RBI has made NACH available for all days of the week, even if the first day of the month falls on a weekend. This change makes it convenient for financial transactions like salary, pension and EMI payments. This move will help the salaried employees as they can now pay their bills promptly. The National Payments Corporation of India provides NACH as a centralised system for repeat and bulk transactions.
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