RBI cuts banks' commission for govt businesses

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has revised the agency commission it pays to banks for handling government businesses.

It has drastically cut commission rate for receipt transactions done through electronic mode from Rs 45 per transaction to Rs 12 per transaction. It has increased rate for receipts through physical mode to Rs 50 per transaction from Rs 45.

For pension payments, the revised rate is Rs 65 per transaction as against Rs 60 earlier. However, for payments other than pension, RBI has reduced payment rate to 5.5 paise per Rs 100 turnover. The old rate was nine paise.

The new rates will be effective from July 1, RBI said in a statement.

The RBI carries out the general banking business of the government through its offices, as well as branches of public sector banks and a few private sector banks, including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank. These banks act as agency banks.

In a dynamic banking situation, several factors and developments influence the costs and mechanism of agency business arrangement. RBI held consultations with major public and private sector agency banks in the recent months on the costs and mechanism.

RBI paid agency charges worth Rs 3,012.49 crore in 2010-11 compared with Rs 2,855.02 crore in 2009-10. The increase of Rs 157.47 crore (5.52 per cent) is mainly attributable to the increase in the volume of government business conducted by agency banks.