Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has proposed the threshold fordigital payments under card facilities, electronic wallet and mobile banking,and is seeking inputs from stakeholders before issuing a directive to theservice providers.

The Payment System Department under the central bank hasproposed that credit card users be allowed to withdraw cash only up to 20 percent of the credit limit. Currently, banks are allowing cash withdrawal of upto 90 per cent. As per the proposed rules, credit card users, who have utilizedthe cash withdrawal facility, cannot withdraw cash again until after thepayback period of the withdrawal facility, despite making deposits.

The central bank has proposed that the banks and financialinstitutions (BFIs) be allowed to issue pre-paid card facility of up to Rs100,000 at one time, and users of pre-paid card may withdraw Rs 500 to Rs 5,000in one transaction and up to Rs 25,000 per month. Likewise, debit card userscan withdraw minimum of Rs 500 to maximum of Rs 25,000 in one-time transactionand up to Rs 100,000 in a day. The same facility will be applied for debit cardusers even if the issuer and acquirer institutions vary and applicable chargesshould be made public efficiently.

Similarly, NRB has also proposed payment threshold for mobilepayment, under which users can make payment of up to Rs 5,000 in onetransaction and daily and monthly payment limit would be fixed at Rs 10,000 andRs 50,000, respectively.

Under internet banking payment facility, users will be ableto make payment of up to Rs 100,000 in a day but no more than Rs 500,000 in amonth, as per the proposed rules. However, the threshold for transfer of fundsto the bank accounts through the use of internet banking has been proposed atRs 100,000 in one time and up to Rs 10 million in a month.

Agent and sub-agents would be allowed to deposit up to Rs5,000 in one transaction, up to Rs 15,000 in day and up to Rs 25,000 in a monthin the wallets operated by the electronic payment service providers. And samewould be applied in case of payment as well, according to the proposed rules.The rules have also proposed to allow wallet-to-wallet transfer of funds andalso through bank accounts to wallets. An amount ranging from Rs 100 to Rs5,000 would be allowed to be transferred wallet-to-wallet in one transactionand up to Rs 15,000 in a day. Likewise, for the payment purpose, Rs 50,000could be transferred in one transaction and that must be paid for another partyon the same day of the transfer.

Wallet service provider would not be able to hold more thanRs 25,000 as deposit. By utilising the facility provided by the serviceproviders, users would be able to pay the bill of public utilities for up to Rs15,000 a day and Rs 25,000 in a month, as per the proposed rules.

Likewise,payment service provider could make payment of up to Rs 100,000 for remittancerecipients in the country. If they have to make payments of more than the giventhreshold, they would have to do so through a bank account. Remittancecompanies operating wallets following the approval from the central bank cantake deposits of up to Rs 10,000 per month from the remitters for the utilitiespayment, as per the proposed rules.

Paymentservice providers would have to follow the know-your-customer (KYC) rules ofcentral bank for clients who conduct transactions of above Rs 5,000 per monthfrom the wallet operated by service providers.

Source: The Himalayan Times, November 30