Cheque payments set to get costlier
From Friday cheque collection charges may go up, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed banks to levy higher service charges for their clearing,especially of high-value and outstation cheques.
As per a Reserve Bank Of India circular coming into effect on April 1,2011,banks will be free to fix service charges on speed-clearing of cheques of value above Rs 1 lakh.At present,Reserve Bank Of India does not allow banks to charge more than Rs 150 per cheque for speed-clearing of cheques worth over Rs 1 lakh,while there are no charges for value up to Rs 1 lakh.
However,speed-clearing of cheques with value up to Rs 1 lakh would continue to remain exempt of any service charges.Speed-clearing refers to processing of outstation cheques electronically and without movement of cheques from the presentation centre (city where the cheque is presented) to drawee centre (city where the cheque is payable).
For normal local clearing also,drawee bank can charge up to Rs 1.50 per cheque from Friday,as against Re 1 at present.For local clearing through cheque truncation system,which works electronically by processing the scanned image of the cheque,drawee bank can levy a service charge of Re 1 from Friday,up from 50 paise at present.
Besides,RBI has also given a free hand to the banks to decide on the service charge on outstation cheques of over Rs 1 lakh,as against a maximum limit of Rs 150 per cheque allowed currently.However,RBI has decided to lower the service charge for outstation cheques up to Rs 5,000,by allowing a levy of Rs 25,as against Rs 50
Source: Times of india
1 Comment
It is highly unfair to levy charges for collection of cheques which are payable at par locally. There should be no charges for clearing of cheques such as dividend warrants, interest warrants etc. which are payable locally.People otherwise again go back to cash transactions. IOB is levying Rs.10/- as bank charges for clearing a cheque of Rs.429/-. How is it justified. Strong public protest is necessary.