Moneylife: Belgaum: Thursday, February 01, 2018.
After a delay
of 50 days, the Syndicate Bank of Mudalgi in Gokak district of Belgaum finally
credited the Rs5,000 debited wrongly from the account of pensioner Tukaram
Yargatti, during a failed ATM transaction at a Canara Bank ATM. Syndicate Bank
has refused to credit into Yargatti’s account, the Rs100 per day penalty, which
amounts to Rs5,000, citing arbitration time with Canara Bank as the reason for
delay in crediting this amount. However, an official from the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) has trashed this excuse and now the matter is pending with the
Banking Ombudsman.
In fact,
Syndicate Bank refused to even attend to the complaint, filed by Yargatti’s
Bangalore based son, Mahesh, in the first week of December. When he approached
this writer, the latter advised him to file an RTI application seeking
information on the status of his complaint. (Read the story here:
https://www.moneylife.in/article/its-31-days-and-syndicate-bank-yet-to-credit-wrongly-debited-money-to-a-customer-we-helped-with-rti/52679.html).
It was only after his RTI application and after the story appeared in Moneylife
that the Syndicate Bank began moving – the first step being to connect with the
Canara Bank branch at which Yargatti had used his ATM card.
In the reply
to Mahesh Yargatti’s RTI application, seeking the status of his complaint, KS
Karunakara, regional manager and public information officer (PIO), has stated
that the person who received his complaint did not understand Kannada, the
language in which the complaint was filed, and so had telephonically asked Yargatti,
which of the two transactions had failed. Yergatti had successfully drawn
Rs5,000 cash in his second attempt. Due to the confusion in these two
transactions, the settlement claim from Canara Bank took time. Yargatti denies
this, saying his written complaint clearly mentioned which of the two was a
failed transaction.
When this
writer contacted Karunakara , he stated
that arbitration with Canara Bank in this matter has led to the delay in
crediting the money of the customer in his account and that, this period of
settlement between two banks cannot be calculated as delay in payment by his
bank. This reply implies that he was working towards getting the customer’s
money credited back to his account, by sorting it out with Canara Bank.
However, Mr
Vinod, an officer in the RBI clearly stated that arbitration with another bank
cannot be taken as an excuse for not paying penalty charges to the customer. He
has directed Yargatti to file a complaint with the Banking Ombudsman. Says
Yargatti, “I have filed the complaint with the Banking Ombudsman last week but
have yet to get an acknowledgment. Now, after 50 days my father has got back
the Rs5,000 that was wrongly debited from his account but I am fighting
Syndicate Bank to pay up the penalty too. We have gone through a lot of
harassment due to this delayed payment.”
Indeed,
despite the RBI rule in place that the bank is liable for penalty payment at a
rate of Rs100 per day if it fails to credit wrongly debited money through ATM
transaction, banks continue to give a spin to it and find some pretext of the
other to harass customers by first not attending to the complaint for days and
then not paying up the penalty.
Yargatti’s
RTI Application and Reply by PIO, Syndicate Bank:
RTI query:
Please let me know the status of my Rs5,000, which was wrongly debited from my
account on 1 December 2017. The wrongfully debited account not corrected till
date. Please let me know the reason for delay in crediting Rs5,000 to my
account.
Reply by PIO,
K S Karunakara, regional manager and public information officer, Syndicate
Bank, zonal office, Bangaluru: Our Mudalgi branch has informed that you have
submitted complaint regarding unsuccessful ATM transaction on 8 December 2017,
wherein two transactions done by you were reported. The officer was not knowing
Kannada language, hence he orally enquired with you as to which transaction is
unsuccessful to which you have orally informed that the transaction dated 1
December 2017 timing 12.18pm is unsuccessful. The same is endorsed by the
concerned officer on your complaint letter also. Therefore, the branch had
referred this disputed transaction for charge back to our card centre through
portal for resolving the issue on 11 December 2017. The matter was taken up
with acquirer bank i.e. Canara Bank by our card centre. The chargeback was
rejected by Canara Bank on 12 December 2017. Therefore, pre-arbitration claim
was sent to the acquirer bank on 28 December 2017. As per time stipulations pre
arbitration raised by the issuer bank will be accepted or rejected by the
acquirer bank within 17 days. Our card centre filed a fresh chargeback on 10
January 2018 for transaction dated 1 December 2017 timing 12.22pm, and to get
back a response in five working days required which will be due on 18 January
2018 .
RTI query: As
per the law please let me know the time limit for crediting back the wrongly
debited amount from a customer's account. Please give me a copy of the Reserve
Bank of India order/circular for such time limit.
Reply by PIO:
The time limit for re-crediting the customer's account by the issuing banks is
seven working days from the date of receipt of customer's complaint in normal
course. (Copy of RBI Circular No.
DPSS.PD.2632/02.1
0.002/201 0-2011 is enclosed herewith). For more details regarding this query
we are enclosing the our Bank’s internal circular no. 312/2011-BC-MKT-09/15-11-
2011 for more information)
RTI query:
According to me, since the delay has crossed seven days for which you have to pay penalty, please let me know
the amount of penalty to be paid by you.
Reply by PIO:
The query asked by you is not covered u/s 2 (f) of the RTI Act. Therefore, we are unable to reply to the
query asked by you.
RTI query:
Please let me know the name of the officer who is in charge of my complaint.
What action has been taken against him for dereliction of duty?
Reply by
PIO: However, the branch has attended
the complaint of December 2017 and RO is also following up with the card centre
from time to time. No written complaint received at RO level.
RTI query: I
request you to provide me with this information within 48 hours under section 7
of the RTI Act.
Reply by PIO:
It is observed that the matter is not concerned with Life and information.
.JPG)
.JPG)
