In a move to bring about uniformity in the mode and amount of service charges for electronic payment products and upcountry cheque collection, the Reserve Bank of India [Get Quote] intends to prescribe ceilings and norms for these services offered to the customers.

RBI has suggested that inward real time gross settlement, National Electronic Fund Transfer and electronic clearing service should be offered free.

For outward transactions using RTGS in the range of Rs 100,000- 500,000, banks may levy charges not more then Rs 25 per transaction and Rs 50 for transactions above Rs 500,000.

Whereas through NEFT, banks can charge Rs 5 for every transaction upto Rs 100,000 and Rs 25 for transaction above Rs 100,000.

RBI has prescribed charges of Rs 25, Rs 50 and Rs 100 for every outstation cheque collection for Rs 10,000, Rs 10,000-100,000 and Rs 100,000 and above respectively.

These charges will be all inclusive and banks are barred from imposing any additional charges such as courier charges, out of pocket expense, it said.

A study conducted by RBI revealed that there was no uniformity in the charges levied by banks. Some banks levy charges based on the number of transactions while others go by the amount transferred. Few banks have different charges for local and outstation transactions.

It said that multiplicity of slabs levied by banks and lack of transparency in norms adopted by them for various segment of customers has led to the hindrance in the overall growth of electronic payment products.