RBI’s New Year gift for savings account holders: All you need to know

New Delhi: This New Year savings account holders in India will get a gift from the Reserve Bank of India. They will not have to pay any fee to their banks for making fund transfer using NEFT from January 1, 2020. This means from the beginning of the New Year, savings bank holders will be able to transfer funds through NEFT system online using net banking or mobile app of their respective banks.

“In order to give further impetus to digital retail payments, it has now been decided that member banks shall not levy any charges from their savings bank account holders for funds transfers done through NEFT system which are initiated online (viz. internet banking and/or mobile apps of the banks),” RBI said in a notification to banks.

The apex bank said this directive will be effective from January 1, 2010. “This directive is issued under Section 10 (2) read with Section 18 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (Act 51 of 2007) and shall be effective from January 1, 2020,” the central bank added.

Worth mentioning here is that effective from Monday (December 16, 2019) NEFT transfer facility has been made available 24*7. Earlier NEFT trasnfer was available only during working hours of working days.

In order to provide an impetus to digital banking, RBI had earlier waived processing charges levied by it on banks for RTGS and NEFT transactions. “In order to provide an impetus to digital funds movement, it has been decided that with effect from July 1, 2019, processing charges and time varying charges levied on banks by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for outward transactions undertaken using the RTGS system, as also the processing charges levied by RBI for transactions processed in NEFT system will be waived by the Reserve Bank,” the apex bank had said in a notification earlier this year.