Demonetisation: RBI waives all ATM transaction charges till December 30

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday waived charges for ATM transactions till December 30 following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. Now, citizens will not be charged if they withdraw cash through their own bank's ATM or other banks.

The waiver, which is subject to review by the RBI, applies for both financial and non-financial transactions. It is not limited to the number of times a person carries out transactions. The fee will be reversed if charges are levied for transactions carried out at other banks ATMs during this time period.

On November 8, the RBI had issued a circular, soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will no longer be considered valid, advising all banks to carry out free of cost financial transactions at their ATMs.

Following the circular, banks had stopped charging for transactions of their account holders, but did apply a fee for transactions carried out by account holders of other banks.

Banks offer at least five free transactions — financial and non-financial — to their savings bank account holders regardless of the location of the ATMs. In metro cities — Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — banks offer at least three free financial and non-financial transactions in a month to their savings bank account holders.

Banks offer a minimum of five free transactions — financial and non-financial — in a month to their savings bank account holders at other bank ATMs in non-metro cities.

Meanwhile, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has said that it has waived the switching fee for all RuPay Issuing and Acquiring member banks for Point of Sales (PoS) and e-commerce transactions till December 31, the Hindu Business Line reported.