Regulate Transaction Fee Paid By Merchants For Digital / Ecommerce Transactions
The Issue
Hailing the demonetisation implementation of the Government of India, I hereby plead the Government to regulate the heavy, arbitrary and unreasonable merchant fees charged to merchants (businesses especially small ones and big as well) by Payment Gateways and Aggregators on an urgent basis. This charges range from 1.5% to 5% on gross sales. In current scenario, urgent intervention by Government is required as many small merchants are willing to adopt POS and Digital Payment acceptance and are subject to exploitation by handful of Payment Gateway Aggregators. These charges will ultimately be passed on to the common man OR worse, cash transactions will be cheaper. This will definitely defeat the current move by the Government and also exploit small merchants and business who are in panic already due to loss of business. I appeal all to support this petition and urgently urge Government to regulate it as follows :
1. All net banking digital or e-commerce transactions should have No Charge or maximum of Rs 2 per transaction. It's like paying by cheque and infact cheaper as no human involvement and more cost effective. Currently HDFC, State Bank Of India, ICICI are charging between 1.5 % to 3%. Why? And what for?
2. Charges for Payment by Debit Cards be Free as well or maximum of Rs 2 per transaction. Current charges are regulated by RBI but again these charges are not required for reasons explained in Point 1 above.
3. Merchant fees for Payment by Credit Cards be fixed at 0.5% maximum. Currently these are charged from 1.5 to 5 % which are exorbitant, arbitrary and irrational. Smaller the merchant or business, higher they pay which is unfair. Big ones are at an advantage and this will eventually wipe out small merchants.
4. Charges for Payment by e wallets like Paytm, Freecharge, State Bank Buddy, etc. (wallet mechanism was started by Government to encourage Digital transactions) should have No Charges or maximum of Rs. 2 per transaction.
5. Service Tax/GST on Merchant Fees payable by businesses should be abolished.
The Issue
Hailing the demonetisation implementation of the Government of India, I hereby plead the Government to regulate the heavy, arbitrary and unreasonable merchant fees charged to merchants (businesses especially small ones and big as well) by Payment Gateways and Aggregators on an urgent basis. This charges range from 1.5% to 5% on gross sales. In current scenario, urgent intervention by Government is required as many small merchants are willing to adopt POS and Digital Payment acceptance and are subject to exploitation by handful of Payment Gateway Aggregators. These charges will ultimately be passed on to the common man OR worse, cash transactions will be cheaper. This will definitely defeat the current move by the Government and also exploit small merchants and business who are in panic already due to loss of business. I appeal all to support this petition and urgently urge Government to regulate it as follows :
1. All net banking digital or e-commerce transactions should have No Charge or maximum of Rs 2 per transaction. It's like paying by cheque and infact cheaper as no human involvement and more cost effective. Currently HDFC, State Bank Of India, ICICI are charging between 1.5 % to 3%. Why? And what for?
2. Charges for Payment by Debit Cards be Free as well or maximum of Rs 2 per transaction. Current charges are regulated by RBI but again these charges are not required for reasons explained in Point 1 above.
3. Merchant fees for Payment by Credit Cards be fixed at 0.5% maximum. Currently these are charged from 1.5 to 5 % which are exorbitant, arbitrary and irrational. Smaller the merchant or business, higher they pay which is unfair. Big ones are at an advantage and this will eventually wipe out small merchants.
4. Charges for Payment by e wallets like Paytm, Freecharge, State Bank Buddy, etc. (wallet mechanism was started by Government to encourage Digital transactions) should have No Charges or maximum of Rs. 2 per transaction.
5. Service Tax/GST on Merchant Fees payable by businesses should be abolished.
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on 18 November 2016