MDR charges waived on debit card payments to Centre

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will start reimbursing Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charges to banks for payments made through debit cards since January 1, the central bank announced on Thursday.

In a bid to encourage digital transactions following the demonetisation of high value currency in November, the Union government had, in December, decided to reimburse banks MDR charges on taxes and receipts paid through debit and credit cards.

In order to operationalise this measure, "the Reserve Bank will reimburse banks MDR on debit cards used for payment of tax and non-tax dues to the government of India with effect from January 1, 2017," an RBI notification said.

Banks have been asked to forward their claim for reimbursement of MDR, along with statutory auditor's certificate, to RBI's Nagpur office on a quarterly basis.

The RBI said banks will also have to certify that MDR charges for transaction amounts up to Rs 1 lakh have not been collected from the payer.

The notification also said that banks may file their claims by April 30 for the quarter ending March 2017.

--IANS

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