The banks may not charge savings account holders for online fund trasfers through the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system from January 2020. The Reserve Bank of India has mandated commercial banks not to levy charges on NEFT transactions, as it looks to encourage digital transactions.
The banking regulator has taken several other steps to improve the digital payment experience including the lauch of the acceptance development fund to increase acceptance infrastructure. It has set up a committee to assess the need for multiple QR codes from both systemic and consumer viewpoints. The Reserve Bank has also proposed that FASTags be enabled to pay at fuel stations and parking lots.
Digital payments accounted for 96% of the total non-cash retail payments between October 2018 and September 2019. The NEFT and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) systems handled 252 crore and 874 crore transactions during the period, growing at 20% and 263%, respectively.
The benchmarking exercise initiated by RBI shows India has performed well in various parameters in the payment systems. The apex bank has facilitated acceptance of RuPay cards in Bhutan and is engaging payment system regulators of other countries to explore synergies and reduce costs for remittances.