In order to provide better service to customers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday had proposed to restrict the upper limit charges in clearing the outstations cheques and all kinds of electronic clearance services. The bank hence has placed an approach paper on its website for public comments.
As of now banks offer outstation cheque collection service and the charges levied for this vary from bank to bank with no uniformity. But after implementing this new proposal, all banks will have to follow the new norms of fund clearance via cheques and electronics with no extra charge.
“There is a need to rationalise and bring in uniformity in the mode and amount of service charges for electronic payment products and outstation cheque collection. The endeavour should be to migrate to electronic modes of payment, more so for large-value and inter-city transactions,” RBI said in the published approach paper.
As per the proposed plan, for fund clearance through cheques, RBI has fixed the upper cap limit: the banks will charge Rs. 25 for clearing of outstation cheques of up to Rs.10,000, Rs.50 for up to Rs.1,00,000 and Rs.100 for above worth of Rs.1,00,000 cheques, whereas there will be no charge asked for local cheques of any amount, as per RBI stated.
For electronic clearance, the bank has proposed maximum limits for each outward transaction while no charge will be levied in local e-clearance service. For sending money through RTG - Real Time Gross Settlement System, RBI sets a maximum charge of Rs 25 for amount up to Rs 5 lakh and Rs 50 for amount above Rs 5 lakh.
Similarly, in case of National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) mechanisms, it will be charged with only Rs 5 for up to Rs 1 lakh while Rs 25 for an amount above Rs 1 lakh.
As far as Electronic Clearance System (ECS) is concerned, RBI has proposed that banks may prescribe charges not higher than cheque return charges for ECS debit returns. While the central bank has also made it clear that no bank should refuse to offer the services to its customers and will come into effect from the date of notification.
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