New Delhi: India’s biggest commercial bank, State Bank of India (SBI), Friday announced its decision to waived charges on national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) and real-time gross settlement (RTGS) transactions through Internet and mobile banking from July 1.
SBI’s decision follows the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s decision to do away with the charges with an aim to move the country towards less-cash economy.
SBI, which has about 25 per cent market share, has also decided to do away with the charges on fund transfer through mobile phones using the IMPS (immediate payment service) from August 1.
The RTGS system is meant for large-value instantaneous fund transfers, while the NEFT system is used for fund transactions of up to Rs 2 lakh.
“In order to provide an impetus to digital funds movement, SBI waived-off RTGS and NEFT charges for YONO, internet banking (INB) and mobile banking (MB) customers from July 1, 2019, the bank said in statement on Monday.
As on 31 March, 2019, the number of SBI customers using internet banking was more than 6 crore, an SBI officer said. “The number of mobile banking services users stood at 1.41 crore. This waive will encourage more and more customers to go for online transactions,” the officer said.
The Narendra Modi government had always been pushing to promote cashlles economy. Even the last Union Budget presented by Union Finance Ministerm, Nirmala Sitharaman also hinted towards positive steps in promoting online and cashless transactions.
SBI currently has a network of 22,100 branches throughout the country. The bank’s ATM network nationally stands at 58,000.
