KATHMANDU: The free interbank ATM transaction facility, which was made available during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been removed from Thursday.

Issuing a circular, NRB has said it has made a new arrangement in line with the integrated directive on payment system of NRB-2077 starting January 14 .

Now, the use of interbank ATMs will be charged. A new fee has also been fixed effective from today.

According to a recent circular issued by the NRB Payment System Department, there will be no charge for ATM users to withdraw cash from any bank up to twice a month. After that, it has been instructed to charge a maximum of Rs 20 per transaction.

According to Bhuvan Kandel, executive director of the payment system department, the NRB has set the fee below the average by discussing the fee set by the banks and financial institutions earlier.

He claimed that the fee limit has been fixed in such a way that it does not cause any trouble to the banks.

Earlier, the monetary policy of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2077/78 had made an arrangement that no charge would be levied on interbank ATM transactions until the COVID-19 subsides.