The Reserve Bank of India released a discussion paper on all charges levied on various payment systems, such as NEFT, RTGS, UPI, IMPS, and credit and debit cards, reported Economic Times.
The banking regulator has asked all payment system stakeholders to submit feedback on whether it should introduce charges on UPI or whether it should be market determined.
It has also sought comments on regulations over interchange fees on debit cards and credit cards. The paper is open for stakeholder comments until October 3, 2022.
“Discussion on charges in different payment systems, their reasonableness, alternate views, etc. , is presented,” the regulator said. “A few questions have also been raised after each discussion to elicit stakeholder and public feedback. The discussion and the inputs received would be used to frame policy interventions going forward. ”
In December last year, the regulator had said that it will release a discussion paper on various charges levied by banks and institutions for all kinds of digital transactions through credit cards, debit cards, wallets and Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The regulator has asked all payment system stakeholders to submit feedback on whether the RBI should review the policy of not levying charges on members for RTGS and NEFT transactions.
Currently, RBI does not charge member banks for using the RTGS and NEFT infrastructure. Though in turn, banks levy some charges on customers for operational usage.
RBI has also asked payment system participants to share their views on whether it should regulate charges for IMPS transactions or fix a ceiling on these charges.
On charges levied on debit and credit card usage the RBI has sought comments on whether debit card transactions should be charged as normal funds transfer transactions or merchant discount rate (MDR) for debit cards be uniform across merchants irrespective of turnover.
The RBI has also asked if it should regulate interchange for debit card and credit card transactions.
The central bank has also sought stakeholder views on whether it should regulate MDR for prepaid instruments (PPI) transactions or whether the charges structure for merchant payments done using PPIs be akin to that of debit cards.