NPCI waives switching fee for RuPay card transactions

In a bid to encourage electronic payments, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has waived the switching fee for points of sale (PoS) as well as e-commerce transactions made through RuPay cards.  

This waiver has been made with effect from November 11 till December 31, NPCI said in a statement.

Earlier, the charges were at 60 paise to the card-issuing bank and 30 paise to card-accepting bank for PoS and e-commerce transactions.

India has about 1.4 million PoS terminals and the acceptance points are growing. Established sellers of online goods are also increasing rapidly. With the right push, 755 million debit cards customers can generate about 50 million card transactions a day from the current level of five million transactions.

A P Hota, managing director and CEO of NPCI, said the decision would make electronic transactions cost-effective for banks. The objective is to support banks in the activation of existing RuPay cards, issuance of new cards and to widen acceptance points.