The Central Bank has proposed to remove the charge of Rs.20 which is to be paid by the user on the use of third-party ATMs to avail of services from April of next year. However the charge for the balance enquiry or cash withdrawals remains same.

Presently according to norms the banks charge

Up to Rs 57 per transaction for using ATMs of other banks,

Charge of Rs 25-30 per cash withdrawal,

Charge of Rs 10-15 every time asking for the balance at an ATM other than your bank

On their part, banks pay between Rs 18 and Rs 31 to the other bank whose ATM was accessed by its account holder.

Various bank opposed the proposal of Reserve Bank of India. Some banks suggested a fixed number of free withdrawals during a quarter or a month whose norms will be decided by the Reserve Bank of India or left to individual banks.

The industry lobby, Indian Banks Association etc. opposed the proposal in the different way. According to them if the ATM services will be available free of charge or on the less charge users transact more for the less amount also. So the number of transactions will more and withdrawal amounts will be low. According to their suggestion there should be only two free monthly transactions. In the metro cities, it wants minimum withdrawal limit be hiked to Rs 500 besides capping the number of times you can check your account balance.