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Very soon, when you transfer money through the NEFT and RTGS, you will be relieved of the charges. Yes, cheer up, bank transfers like RTGS and NEFT will be free of cost! The Reserve Bank of India has announced to waive off the charges applied on bank transfers/ transactions done via Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) or National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT).

"Banks will be required, in turn, to pass these benefits to their customers. Instructions to banks in this regard will be issued within a week," the central bank said.

RBI directed consumer banks to pass these benefits to customers. What else could be a greater convenience to you, when you will do the NEFT and RTGS transfers without paying any charges? What is more, the RBI is setting up a panel to review charges levied on ATM withdrawals by banks. The panel will submit its report within two months of the first meeting. These decisions were taken at RBI’s bi-monthly monetary policy meeting.

The central bank has also announced to slash down its lending rate by 25 basis points for the third time. If banks lower MCLR accordingly, the interest rate on your Personal loans, home and car loans will also come down. By slashing RTGS and NEFT transaction charges, RBI wants to boost digital transactions in the country.

Also read: What are RBI’s New Rules for Credit and Debit Cards?

NEFT & RTGS Transfers

While NEFT transfer is meant for fund transfers up to Rs. 2 lakh, RTGS transfer is carried out for large-value fund transfers. The State Bank of India (SBI) currently charges Rs. 1 to 5 for NEFT and Rs. 50 for RTGS. 

To promote digital transactions, RBI has decided to put an end to charges imposed on transactions routed through NEFT and RTGS system. In the past few years, digital payments through UPI (Unified Payment Interface) have seen huge growth. The volume of UPI transactions increased from 189.5 million to 733.5 million between May 2018 to May 2019, demonstrating a dramatic increase of 400%. While the amount transferred went up from Rs. 32,885.5 crore to Rs. 152,449.3 crore, nearly 500% increase.

Thus, RBI’s bi-monthly policy meeting brought about many changes in monetary policies that give you ample reasons to celebrate. Cheer Up!

 Source: Medianama