Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday decided to relax the charge it had put earlier on clients for inter-bank money transaction through cross cheque and electronic fund transfer due to widespread criticism from business community, clients and media, said central bank officials.
A BB official told New Age on Wednesday that the central bank’s senior management team led by the governor, Atiur Rahman, had made the decision in a meeting on the day that the clients would not count any charge for clearing of regular value cheque up to Tk 5,000.
The official, however, said that the business community and clients had demanded that the BB to withdraw all types of charge for cheque transaction and EFT.
The BB has also decided that it would withdraw all charges on government transaction through cheque and EFT with banks, he said.
The government will not pay any charge on its transaction for clearing the high and the regular value cheque. Besides, it will not count any charge on EFT transaction, he said.
The government has recently started to disburse the salary to its officials through EFT.
The BB official said that the central bank would issue a circular to all banks in just one or two days in this regard.
The BB on November 14, 2012 issued a circular saying that the clients would count Tk 50 for clearing of each high value cheque, Tk 7 for regular value cheque and Tk 7 for each electronic fund transfer with effect from January 1, 2013.
The clients would also count the value added tax along with the charge, the circular had said.
The central bank is receiving Tk 25 and Tk 5 and Tk 5 from each transaction of high and regular value cheque and electronic fund transfer respectively to manage its operational cost of Bangladesh Automated Clearing House, it said.
Tk 5 lakh and above is considered as high value cheque and the banks have to transact the cheque by 3:00pm in a working day.
Any figure of taka is considered regular value cheque and the banks have to transact the cheque by 5:00pm in a working day. The banks have to conduct the EFT transaction from one account to another account within 12 noon.
After issuance of the circular, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry had demanded the BB should not impose charge on clients for inter-bank money transaction.
The FBCCI had said such types of charge would create additional burden on clients as the commercial banks were already charging higher for different services.
‘The cost of operating business will go up affecting the economic activities if charges are imposed on inter-bank transaction,’ it had said.
Another BB official told New Age on Wednesday that the central bank had recently received a number of letters from clients and businessmen demanding withdrawal of the charge on inter-bank transaction for cheque clearing and EFT.
Under the circumstances, the BB relaxed the charge rate considering the marginal banks’ clients, he said.