RBI opens up discussion on transaction charges on debit, credit, & others for public to ease frictions; check details

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has today released a discussion paper on “Charges in Payment Systems” for public feedback. The feedback can be provided on the questions raised in the discussion paper or any other suggestion through email, on or before 3 October 2022.

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RBI wants to iron out all the frictions regarding debit and credit card charges and to ease facilitation of online transactions. Charges of Debit and Credit cards have always remained a bone of contention between public and card companies. "While there are many intermediaries in the payments transaction chain, consumer complaints are generally about high and non-transparent charges," it said.

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"Charges for payment services should be reasonable and competitively determined for users while also providing optimal revenue stream for the intermediaries. To ensure this balance, it was considered useful to carry out a comprehensive review of the various charges levied in the payment systems by highlighting different dimensions and seeking stakeholder feedback," it added.

The discussion paper is overarching as it covers most of the online payment system including Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system, Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system and Unified Payments Interface (UPI)] and various payment instruments [such as debit cards, credit cards and Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs)], etc.

It is a great chance for consumers to speak about their concerns and issues regarding debit and credit charges to the central bank of India. Feedback would help RBI to guide policies and interventionist strategies. Feedback can be provided on this dpssfeedback@rbi.org.in. before or on 3 October, 2022.