Sibal calls for fee waiver on money transfer for BPL families

NEW DELHI: Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today said Department of Posts and state-run BSNL should waive-off fees charged on money transfers by people in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category, under the Mobile Money Transfer Service launched today.

"I would urge the two departments, as a first step before revising the transaction cost... to ensure that BPL category people, when they send money, do not pay transaction cost at all," Sibal said while inaugurating the service.

Department of Posts with BSNL announced launch of Mobile Money Transfer scheme in Delhi, Bihar, Punjab and Kerala.

Under this service, anyone can transfer money among these states instantly. A sender of money under it will have to fill a form in Post Office while depositing cash and provide mobile number of the person to whom the money is to be sent.

After completion of this process, the system will generate a transaction ID code that will be sent through SMS to the sender, beneficiary and the post office. The system will also generate a secret code that will be only for sender of money.

The sender of money will have to provide the code to beneficiary who will present it along with transaction ID to the destination Post Office to take the money within 7 days from the cash deposit date.

Users of this scheme will be charged Rs 45 for sending money in the range of 1000- 1500, 79 for funds ranging between Rs 1501- 5000 and 112 for money transfer in the range of 5001- 10,000.

Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar said one of the objectives of the scheme should be to lower the cost of transaction to enable transaction of even very small amounts. He said aim should be to make profit through volumes rather than charging high transaction cost.