The following REs of RBI are covered under the RB-IOS, 2021:

(i) Banks: All commercial banks, including Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks, Foreign Banks, Local Area Banks, Small Finance Banks, Payment Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Scheduled Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks and Non-scheduled Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks with deposit size of ₹50 Crore and above, as on the date of the audited balance sheet of the previous financial year;

(ii) NBFCs registered with RBI: All Non-Banking Financial Companies (excluding Housing Finance Companies) which (a) are authorized to accept deposits; or (b) have customer interface, with an assets size of ₹100 crore and above as on the date of the audited balance sheet of the previous financial year;

Note: Core Investment Companies, Infrastructure Debt Fund-Non-banking Financial Companies, Non-Banking Financial Companies-Infrastructure Finance Companies, companies in resolution or winding up / liquidation, or any other NBFC specified by RBI are excluded from the ambit of the RB-IOS, 2021.

(iii) System Participants: All Payment System Participants - banks as well as non-banks regulated by RBI are covered under the RB-IOS, 2021. These entities issue Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) and facilitate transactions over National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) / Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) / Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) / Unified Payments Interface (UPI) / Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) / Bharat QR Code / *99# mobile transaction service using Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) / Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), etc.

(iv) Credit Information Companies: All Credit Information Companies as defined in the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013) and granted a Certificate of Registration under sub-section (2) of section 5 of the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005 (30 of 2005).

The list of entities, periodically updated, covered under the RB-IOS, 2021 is available at https://cms.rbi.org.in/cms/assets/Documents/RBIO_English_Portal.pdf.

Ans. Yes, a bank must offer to its savings bank account holders a minimum number of free transactions at ATMs as under:

• Transactions at a bank’s own ATM (On-Us transactions) at any location: Banks should offer their savings bank account holders a minimum of five free financial transactions in a month, irrespective of the location of ATMs. Any number of non-cash withdrawal transactions will be provided free.
• Transactions at any other banks’ ATM (Off-Us transactions) at Metro locations: In case of ATMs located in six metro locations, viz. Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and New Delhi, banks shall offer their savings bank account holders a minimum of three free transactions (including financial and non-financial transactions) in a month.
• Transactions at any other banks’ ATM (Off-Us transactions) at non-Metro locations: At any location, other than the six metro locations as above, banks must offer its savings bank account holders a minimum of five free transactions (including financial and non-financial transactions) at other bank ATMs in a month.

The Ministry of MSME, Government of India and SIDBI set up the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) with a view to facilitate flow of credit to the MSE sector without the need for collaterals / third party guarantees. The main objective of the scheme is that the lender should give importance to project viability and secure the credit facility purely on the primary security of the assets financed. The Credit Guarantee scheme (CGS) seeks to reassure the lender that, in the event of a MSE unit, which availed collateral - free credit facilities, failing to discharge its liabilities to the lender, the Guarantee Trust would make good the loss incurred by the lender to the tune of 75-90 per cent of the outstanding amount in default.

The CGTMSE would provide cover for credit facility up to ₹10 crore which have been extended by lending institutions without any collateral security and /or third party guarantees. A guarantee and annual service fee is charged by the CGTMSE to avail of the guarantee cover. For more details you may visit www.cgtmse.in.

Answer: Exchange rate between the currencies of the two trading partner countries will be market determined.

Since instructions related to GST are issued by Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), instructions and clarifications, if any, issued by CBIC in this regard may be followed.

Response: The deposit under STBD (1-3 years) can be made for only specified timeframe. The deposit can be subsequently renewed upon maturity.

Ans. The minimum details in both types of Small PPIs are same and are as under:

1. mobile number verified with One Time Password (OTP); and

2. self-declaration of name and unique identity / identification number of any mandatory document or Officially Valid Document (OVD) or any such document with any name listed for this purpose in the RBI’s Master Direction on KYC. The present list of mandatory document / OVDs include passport, driving licence, voter's identity card, NREGA job card, proof of possession of Aadhaar number and letter issued by the National Population Register.

The services available free in the 'Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account’ will include deposit and withdrawal of cash; receipt / credit of money through electronic payment channels or by means of deposit / collection of cheques at bank branches as well as ATMs.

Ans: If a Destination Bank is not in a position to credit the beneficiary account due to any reason, the same would be returned to the ECS Centre to enable the ECS Centre to pass on the uncredited items to the User Institution through the Sponsor Bank. The User Institution can then initiate payment through alternate modes to the beneficiary.

In case of delayed credit by the destination bank, the destination bank would be liable to pay penal interest (at the prevailing RBI LAF Repo rate plus two percent) from the due date of credit till the date of actual credit. Such penal interest should be credited to the Destination Account Holder’s account even if no claim is lodged to the effect by the Destination Account Holder.

All NDS OM-Web GAH users would need to use Digital Certificates issued by the designated Certifying Authority obtained by the respective PM, embedded into e-tokens (of the prescribed configuration) supplied to them by their PM. A safe, reliable, stable internet connection with suitable bandwidth is necessary for efficient operations. A modern PC with contemporary configuration, minimum 1 GB RAM, Operating System - Windows XP and above will be required.  Only IE Browser - 7 and above can be used for accessing OM-Web.