There was confusion and outrage on Thursday after State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, posted a circular on its website, stating that every cash withdrawal at ATMs will attract a charge of Rs 25 per transaction.
The circular was revised, stating it was only applicable for customers of SBI Buddy mobile wallet, but by then many people had voiced their dissent and disbelief.
A CPM member of parliament M.B. Rajesh even told news agency IANS that he would raise the issue in the Parliament. However, SBI soon revised the circular.
Many customers took to Twitter to voice their anger.
“We have a voice, we should protest for this drastic and vigorous move from SBI to implement Rs 25 per transaction on ATMs,” tweeted one.
Another Twitter user wished there was an option to port account number from one bank to another. Yet another one said if these things continued, it would soon be shut down.
The revised circular on the website states that the Rs 25 charge per ATM withdrawal will only be applicable for SBI Buddy customers and for basic savings bank deposit accounts, up to four withdrawals, including at ATMs, will remain free.
The SBI has further clarified that the limit of four ATM withdrawals in a month only applies to the basic savings banks deposit account. All normal saving bank accounts will continue to get eight free ATM transactions (five at SBI ATMs + three at other bank ATMs) in metros and 10 free transactions in non-metros (five SBI ATMs + five other bank ATMs) apart from the bank transactions.
While the Rs 25 per ATM withdrawal fee will be only for SBI Buddy customers, SBI customers will have to pay charges for several other services.
For instance, IMPS funds transfers up to Rs 1 lakh will attract a fee of Rs 5 plus service tax, above Rs 1 lakh and up to Rs 2 lakh, there will be a fee of Rs 15 plus service tax and from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh there will be a charge of Rs 25 plus service tax.
If one wishes to exchange soiled currency notes, then there will be no charges up to 20 pieces and value up to Rs 5,000. However, there will be a charge of Rs 2 per piece for exchanging more than 20 notes and if the value exceeds Rs 5,000, then there will be a charge of Rs 2 per piece or Rs 5 per 1,000 plus service tax, whichever is higher on entire tender.
The circular also states that for basic savings bank deposit accounts (BSBD), only RuPay classic card will be issued free of cost. Up to four withdrawals, including those at ATMs, will be free of charge for BSBD.
Beyond four withdrawals at branches, the bank will levy a charge of Rs 50 plus service tax per transaction; at SBI ATMs there will be a charge of Rs 10 plus service tax and and at other bank ATMs there will be a charge of Rs 20 plus service tax for each transaction.
There will be also be charges for issue of cheque books, the circular states.
It must be noted that several other banks, including some of the private lenders, also charge customers for cash withdrawals at ATMs after three to four transactions.
