Letters: An ill-conceived move

With reference to the news piece “SBI card bill payment of Rs 2,000 by cheque to cost you Rs 100 more” (April 19), the reported move of SBI Card, a joint venture between SBI and GE capital, which enjoys the trust of over 4 million customers, to charge Rs 100 for making payment up to the bill amount of Rs 2,000 by cheque seems to be highly ill-conceived. It is ironical that anything above this meagre amount has been totally exempted from any such fee. What is so sacrosanct about this magical figure of just Rs 2,000? Why punish only its marginal 10 per cent customers, more so when its CEO himself claims that over 90 per cent of its customers make payments through non-cheque mode? 

In fact, the actual position should have been in the ‘reverse’ mode if SBI Card truly aims at encouraging digital payments in line with the government's policy. While one could understand the justification of levying such a fee if the payment up to Rs 2,000 was made in cash only but it would have been much better if no discrimination was made by SBI Card between its small/marginal and the high value customers by levying such a fee. Of late, the SBI has been coming out with some highly innovative ideas to spruce up its revenue kitty like hiking the minimum balance limit for different categories of its customers, among others. It has also been regularly reducing the rate of interest payable on its term deposits in anticipation of the RBI’s monetary policy stance. 

S K Gupta, New Delhi

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