Telangana News

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, with the intention of encouraging the digital transactions, asked the public sector banks to restrict fee on payments through Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI), to the extent that is applicable for NEFT fund transfer of over Rs. 1,000.

According to the RBI norms, apart from the service tax, NEFT transfers of up to Rs. 10,000 attract Rs. 2.5 fee. From Rs. 10,000-1 lakh the fee is Rs. 5; on Rs. 1-2 lakh it is Rs. 15, and beyond Rs. 2 lakh it is Rs. 25. 

The ministry said that for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) transactions above Rs. 1,000, a further discount of 50 paise on these rates shall apply. USSD is a mobile short code message and used mainly for banking services on feature phone. The USSD fee is Rs. 1.50, which has been waived till December 30, 2016.

The official statement from the Finance Minister says, "these banks shall not charge fees for transactions settled on IMPS and UPI in excess of rates charged for National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) for transactions above Rs. 1000, with service tax being charged at actuals."