Finance Ministry takes more steps to promote digital payments

New Delhi, Dec 21 (KNN) In order to further promote digital and card payments, Government has asked the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) not to charge fees for transactions settled on Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in excess of rates charged for National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) for transactions above Rs. 1000/-, with service tax being charged at actual.

For Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) transactions above Rs. 1000/-, a further discount of Fifty (50) Paise on these rates shall apply, the Ministry said.

In line with the Central Government’s objective of promotion of payments through cards and digital means over payments in cash, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently rationalized customer charges for transactions up to Rs. 1000/- settled on IMPS, UPI and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) with effect from 01.01.2017 till 31.03.2017.

RBI has also rationalized the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) for debit card transactions up to Rs. 2000/- with effect from 01.01.2017 till 31.03.2017.