NEW DELHI: In an effort to fast track digital payments and transactions, the Finance Ministry on Wednesday instructed Public Sector Banks (PSB) to restrict fees on payments through IMPS and UPI to what is currently charged for NEFT transactions ogver Rs 1,000. This direction will stand for all transactions up to March 31, 2017.
As per the existing norms, such NEFT transactions up to Rs 10,000 attract a 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. Service tax is charged in addition to this.
“These banks shall not charge fees for transactions settled on Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in excess of rates charged for National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) for transactions above Rs 1000..,” it said.
The UPI app enables customers to make online as well as offline payment to merchants from their bank accounts, without typing card or net banking/wallet details.
The Ministry has also extended the relaxations regime to payments made through Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) above Rs 1,000. In these cases, a further discount of 50 paise on these rates shall apply. USSD is mobile short code message and they are mainly used for mobile banking through feature phones. The fee for USSD transactions are Rs 1.50, but has been waived until December 30.