Mobile Money Transfer Fee in India Reduced to 10 Paise – NPCI

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) reduced the switching fee for Mobile Money Transfers using the Inter Bank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) to 10 paise for successful transaction to the remitting bank. NPCI had earlier planned to levy a charge of 25 paise per successful transaction from the remitting bank from 01 April, 2011.

Now NPCI has decided that it would levy only 10 paise as switching charges for successful transactions for the next financial year (01 April 2011 to 31 March 2012) to provide momentum and impetus to mobile based financial transactions. The fee was waived in full for the current financial year to promote this product. While this charge would be applicable to the sending bank, the banks have the freedom to charge their respective customers as per their policies.

The list of banks that are already live are:[advt]

1. Axis Bank
2. Bank of India
3. HDFC Bank
4. ICICI Bank
5. State Bank of India
6. YES Bank
7. Union Bank of India
8. Lakshmi Vilas Bank
9. Kotak Mahindra Bank
10. Federal Bank
11. Corporation Bank
12. Oriental Bank of Commerce
13. Indian Bank
14. Development Credit Bank Ltd

The list of banks that are in various stages of joining the service are:

1. IDBI Bank
2. Syndicate Bank
3. Citibank
4. Karur Vysya Bank
5. Andhra Bank
6. Punjab National Bank
7. Indian Overseas Bank
8. Canara Bank
9. IndusInd Bank
10. South Indian Bank
11. State Bank of Travancore
12. State Bank of Hyderabad

M Balakrishnan, Chief Operating Officer of NPCI said:

“IMPS has kindled interest among the banking community and customers going by the number of banks that have already joined in quick time (14 of them) , the number of banks that are in various stages of joining the scheme (10+) and  the visible keen interest of customers . Given that IMPS can be of help in the financial inclusion objective as well, with the reduction in charges to 10 paise per successful transaction – probably the least switching charges in the world for similar services – NPCI expects the banks to promote  this service aggressively and increase the transaction volume 2 to 3 times more than originally envisaged.”