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If you have a safe deposit locker with State Bank of India, be prepared to pay higher rentals as India's largest bank has decided to increase locker rental charges by up to 50 per cent with effect from March 31, 2020.
SBI will increase safe deposit locker rental charges by a third, across the board, in metro and urban areas. In the case of Semi-Urban and Rural (SURU) areas, the increase in these charges will range from 20 to 50 per cent.
The proposed locker rental charges in metro and urban areas (excluding Goods & Service Tax) are: Rs 2,000 for small locker (Rs 1,500 now); Rs 4,000 for medium locker (Rs 3,000); Rs 8,000 for large locker (Rs 6,000); and Rs 12,000 for extra large locker (Rs 9,000).
The proposed locker rental charges in SURU areas (excluding Goods & Service Tax) are: Rs 1,500 for small locker (Rs 1,000 now); Rs 3,000 for medium locker (Rs 2,000); Rs 6,000 for large locker (Rs 5,000); and Rs 9,000 for extra large locker (Rs 7,000).
So, with effect from March 31, 2020, customers of SBI's SURU branches will be paying locker rental charges that its metro and urban branch customers are currently paying.
The increase in safe deposit locker charges comes in the backdrop of Banks being asked by the Reserve Bank of India to not levy any charges on their savings bank account holders for funds transfers done through NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) system with effect from January 1, 2020. Further, in late December 2019, the Finance Ministry said digital transactions undertaken via RuPay and UPI (unified payments interface) will be without any Merchant Discount Rate.
Given that banks are required to provide the above mentioned services without any charges, they are seen upping charges on other services or cutting down the number of free services.
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