Demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 Notes - Reserve Bank of India(RBI)waives all ATM charges till December 30,2016

To alleviate the hardship caused to the public on account of the demonetisation exercise, banks will waive levy of ATM charges for all transactions by savings bank customers done at their own banks’ ATMs as well as at other banks’ ATMs, irrespective of the number of transactions during the month, according to the Reserve Bank of India(RBI)

This waiver is applicable on transactions (inclusive of both financial and non-financial transactions) done at ATMs from November 10, 2016 till December 30, 2016, subject to review.

This move comes in the backdrop of desperate public queuing up at ATMs, irrespective whether they belong to the bank in which they hold the account or of some other bank, that are open to draw cash for their daily needs after the Government announced scrapping of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes from November 9.

Bankers say less than half of the 2,18,542 ATMs (as on September-end 2016) are currently operational. Many of these machines are undergoing recalibration to dispense the new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000 notes, beside the Rs. 100 notes.

After the demonetisation of the specified bank notes, bank branches and ATMs have seen huge crowds wanting to either exchange the old notes/ withdraw/ deposit cash.

Banks have to offer their savings bank account holders a minimum of five free transactions (including both financial and non-financial) in a month, irrespective of the location of ATMs.

In case of ATMs located in six metro locations -- Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, banks have to offer their savings bank account holders a minimum of three free transactions (including both financial and non-financial transactions) in a month.

At other (non-metro) locations, banks have to offer the savings bank account holders a minimum of five free transactions (including both financial and non-financial transactions) in a month at other bank ATMs.

Customers can be charged for transactions at ATMs over and above the mandated number of free transactions. In case a bank decides to levy charges, the customer can be charged a maximum of Rs. 20 per transaction (plus service tax, if any) by his/her bank.

For example, SBI charges Rs. 17 and Rs. 6 for financial transactions and non-financial transactions, respectively for transactions at ATMs over and above the mandated number of free transactions.

Meanwhile, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said it has waived the switching fee for all RuPay Issuing and Acquiring member banks for Point of Sales (PoS) and e-Commerce transactions with effect from November 11, 2016 till December 31, 2016.

The charges before the waive off stood at Rs. 0.60 to card issuing bank (Issuer) and Rs.0.30 to card accepting bank (Acquirer) for PoS / e-commerce transactions.

A. P. Hota, MD & CEO, NPCI said, “... The objective is to support banks in the activation of existing RuPay cards, issuance of new cards to non-card customers and to widen the acceptance points. The government’s move on demonetisation of high denomination currency notes is the trigger point for pressing the fast forward button for digital payments.”