“I take this opportunity to appreciate the gesture of public sector banks, and some of the private sector banks who have already agreed. And others are expected to agree and issue their own circulars,” Das said.
He said the intention behind this decision is to ensure greater penetration of digital transactions into our economy and to ensure that more and more people migrate towards digital transactions.
The Reserve Bank in 2012 had capped the MDR for debit card transaction at 0.75 per cent for transaction values up to Rs 2,000 and at 1 per cent for transaction values above Rs 2,000. However, there is no RBI cap on MDR on credit card payments.
In order to move towards ‘less-cash’ society by developing a card acceptance infrastructure, the RBI had in March came out with a concept paper to encourage card transactions and sought public opinion.
As of October 2015, there were 61.5 crore debit card users and 2.3 crore credit card holders in the country.
The Task Force on promotion of payments through cards and digital means has flagged issues with respective government departments.
(Sourced from agencies, feature image courtesy:goodreturns.in)
