Mumbai: Withdrawing money from ATMs can be costly in the coming times. The country’s ATM Operators Association has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to increase the interchange fee. The association says that companies operating ATMs are not benefiting, so there is a need to increase the interchange fee charged to customers on cash withdrawal.
These companies, which run ATM machines, argue that increased compliance and safety standards of RBI has resulted in increased cost of running teller machines, while no steps have been taken to increase their income, due to which It has become necessary to increase the interchange fee.
The RBI has fixed the maximum limit of free transactions per customer at five and the interchange fee Rs 15 per transaction. The ATM industry or CATMi says that this amount is not enough for companies to run the business.
According to a letter sent to a senior RBI official on February 13, “The continuous losses to companies are not only affecting the viability of ATM business, but it has also slowed down the pace of installation of new ATMs”.
“In the midst of all this, the RBI has been demanding compliance of various various security measures, irrespective of their financial health, which is adversely affecting the companies working in this sector,” the letter said.