New Delhi: In another blow to ‘aam aadmi’ (common man) post demonetisation, country’s second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has decided to steeply increase cash transaction fees by 50% to Rs 150. It has also reduced the number of free cash transactions at branches to four from five.
It means, you can now do transactions of Rs 2 lakh (both withdrawals and deposits) only at home branches. Crossing the limit will cost customers a minimum of Rs 150 or Rs 5 per thousand.
Not only this, the Mumbai-headquartered bank capped the third-party or non-home branches transactions at Rs 25,000 a day. The same fees will set in at the same level in case of exceeding the limit.
Earlier, it used to allow Rs 50,000 cash transactions (both withdrawals and deposits) per day.
The bank said the review has been done to discourage usage of cash and push digital transactions.
The bank claimed that the hiked charges are at par with the industry trend.
Its larger peer ICICI Bank’s website shows a minimum charge of Rs 150 for more than four cash transactions (deposits and withdrawals) at home branches for savings accounts, similar to what HDFC Bank is proposing.
Axis Bank, the third largest private lender, charges Rs150 or Rs 5 per thousand, for cash deposits of over Rs1 lakh per month or from the fifth withdrawal at branches, its website said.
It can be noted that a high-level panel led by former Finance Secretary Ratan Watal had called for imposing “nominal charges after a certain limit” for cash transactions. Working towards a less-cash economy, the budget 2017- 2018 has
placed a blanket ban on cash transactions above Rs 3 lakh, following the report by the SIT on black money.
(With PTI inputs)