THIS 1st April gives you reason to smile (if you haven't already, over a fools' day joke).

A directive from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), dated March 2008, comes into complete effect this day. According to the directive, banks now, cannot charge you for use of other bank's ATM for cash withdrawals.

This means that now you can withdraw money from the ATM of any bank without paying a fee.

When the directive was issued last year, it had laid down that with immediate effect (that is March 2008) banks would not charge customers for use of their own ATMs or for balance enquiries at ATMs of other banks. It had also put a cap of Rs 20 per transaction on withdrawal from other bank's ATMs.

Starting 1st April 2009, this Rs 20 will also not be levied.

This final step is in line with the RBIs attempt to regulate the fee structure from the public policy angle.

See the full directive here.

Watch video: How to withdraw money at the ATM

Photograph: Vipurva Parekh

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e-mail: Deepa Venkatraghvan

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