With an aim to encourage individuals to adopt digital payment systems, Reserve Bank of India today said banks and issuers of Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) will not temporarily levy any charges on customers for transactions upto Rs 1,000 settled on the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), USSD-based mobile application and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) systems.
The above measures will come into effect from January 1 and will be applicable till March 31. In the interim, the RBI will facilitate a review of the charges under these channels by the concerned stakeholders.
"Following the withdrawal of legal tender characteristics of existing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bank notes the government has been taking several measures in consultation with various stakeholders to incentivise greater adoption of digital payments by large sections of the society,” it said.
Also, the banking regulator has capped the Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) on debit card transactions unto Rs 1,000 at 0.25 percent of the transaction value.
For transactions above Rs 1,000 and up to Rs 2,000, MDR will be capped at 0.5 percent of the transaction value. This, too, will be a temporary measure to be effective January 1 to March 31.
Earlier, banks were advised to cap the MDR for debit card transactions at 0.75 percent for transactions upto Rs 2,000 and 1 percent over Rs 2,000.
RBI said these measures are being taken in order to facilitate wider acceptance of card payments including debit card transactions, and payments made to the Government.
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