Bangalore: With the rising amount of pickpocketing and thefts and the fact that ATMs are to be found in every corner of the city, people have gotten used to not carrying around large sums of money. They would rather visit the nearby ATM and withdraw whatever amount is needed for the day.

However, this scenario could soon change, with the RBI moving ahead with the proposal of further restricting the number of free transactions to 3 per month as opposed to the earlier 5.

This new policy would be applicable from November, wherein transactions from ATMs of banks other than your own would attract a charge of Rs. 20 per transaction. The number of own bank transactions too have been reduced to 5, which was earlier unlimited. After 5 free transactions, a similar charge of Rs. 20/- would be deducted per transaction. This would include both cash and non-cash transactions including balance enquiry.

In the first phase, this would apply only to major areas like Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. However, the policy is likely to be implemented pan-India after a few months.

This policy was brought into place after the RBI received several representations from commercial banks citing the rising costs due to use of ATMs from customers other than its own. According to them, each transaction at an ATM leads to Rs. 18 as an operating cost.
However, this limit will not be applicable to customers with no-frills accounts and small/basic accounts. Also, banks have been given the freedom to increase the number of free transactions for their customer if they so wish to.

Bangalore reacts

This move has evoked quite some outrage among Bangaloreans. Here are some responses:

“This is being forced on us unjustly. First of all, travelling in Bangalore is a hassle, and with the limited number of own bank ATMs available how do they expect us to travel half the way across the city just to withdraw some cash? It may cost us more money (and valuable time) to draw cash. So in case it is passed, we have no choice but to bear the additional cost.” says a frustrated Selvan, an IT professional.

“All this while they spoke about convenience and owning an ATM card. Now that we are used to it, they are extracting money out of us. This is something like organized fraud” says Natasha, a student.

“ATMs have actually reduced the amount of workload we have, and that has saved the banks a lot of money in terms of manpower and other documentation costs. I don’t understand why the banks are planning to pass on the operating costs to the consumers” says an ex-bank employee who wished to remain anonymous.

“There’s no saying that soon they won’t start charging us hefty sums even for swiping our cards at shopping centres. We are being taxed and charged for everything. All I see ahead are ‘buure dins’ for us in the name of progress.” says Neelam, a shopper.