Hyderabad: A social activist has filed a complaint with the cyber crime police against Paytm and Inox multiplex, Kachiguda, alleging that they are illegally charging customers without authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India.
It is illegal to levy a payment gateway charge on consumer transactions without proper authorisation, says Vijay Gopal, president of the Forum Against Corruption.
The Paytm movie ticket booking app is a service provider that makes tickets available to consumers via the internet, he said. “They are charging almost Rs 295 extra under different heads to consumers who book tickets on their platform, by calling the extra charges convenience fee, booking charges and cancellation charges, which is illegal,” Mr Gopal says.
Narrating his experience, Mr Gopal said, “I had purchased two tickets at Inox Leisure Ltd, Kachiguda, which cost around Rs 276. During payment, Rs 80 was added for the original ticket cost, including cancellation protection charges Rs 33.9, convenience fee Rs 12, booking charge Rs 22. In total, (including the GST) I paid Rs 356.12.”
A service provider cannot charge extra for the service it provides to consumers unless the service charge has been authorised by the appropriate government as per section 6 A(3) of the IR (amendment) Act 2008.
According to the IT Act, 2008, under section 6A(3) passed by without proper authorisation the service providers can’t charge any money from the customers.
In reply to Mr Gopal’s query under Right to Information the RBI and ministry of Electronics and Information Technology confirmed that they haven’t given any permission to any merchant, online trader, or e-commerce company to levy a payment gateway charge on consumer transactions. The reply further explains that this is a violation of the RBI’s Merchant Discount Rate regulations.
MDR is the cost paid by a merchant to a bank for accepting payment from its customers via credit or debit card every time a card is used in their stores.
