RBI mandates banks not to charge for NEFT transactions from January 2020

In order to further Digital Payments in the country, RBI announced today (Nov 08, 2019) that it has mandated the Banks not to charge for NEFT online transactions of SB customers. The new rule is effective from 1st January 2020.
The Central Bank statement said that the new order is to “empower every citizen with an Exceptional (e) Payment Experience, and provide her access to a bouquet of options”. According to the communication, the Reserve Bank has taken further steps to endeavor the achievement of the above goals.
In this regard, the Acceptance Development Fund is operationalized with effect from January 1, 2020, to increase acceptance infrastructure. The Apex bank further proposes to Constitute a Committee to assess the need for a plurality of QR codes and merits of their co-existence or convergence from both systemic and consumer viewpoints. The statement said that it is decided to Permit all authorised payment systems and instruments (non-bank PPIs, cards and UPI) for linking with National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) FASTags. “Going forward, this will facilitate the use of FASTags for parking, fuel, etc., payments in an interoperable environment”. Further, steps are also taken to enable the processing of e-mandates for transactions through UPI, the statement added.