ISLAMABAD:
A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, chaired by Saleem Mandviwalla, on Wednesday expressed concern over consumer complaints over high fees charged by banks for courier services.
During the meeting, Mandviwalla noted that consumers raised concerns that banks were charging excessive fees for SMS alerts.
Association of Pakistan Banks Chairman Zafar Masud informed the committee that customers pay fees to banks and telecom companies for courier services.
He said banks cannot fully recover their costs despite these fees, collectively incurring expenses of around Rs 2 billion annually.
Masud added that mobile phone companies charge around 60 paisas per SMS from consumers and charge significantly higher fees to banks.
“These fees are quite high,” he said, adding that digital banking apps do not charge consumers any fees for notifications.
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Deputy Governor Inayat Hussain informed the committee that under regulatory instructions, banks are required to send SMS alerts to their customers.
It revealed that banks collect about 18.7 billion rupees annually from consumers in SMS-related fees, while paying about 25.6 billion rupees to telecom companies.
According to Hussain, telecom companies charge banks almost five times more than what they charge ordinary consumers. He further said that banks spend around Rs 7 billion annually from their own resources to cover these costs.
The committee has asked banks to provide full details of charges for regulatory and other messaging services.
Meanwhile, Senator Abdul Qadir pointed out that banks earn profits of around Rs400 billion annually, so paying Rs7 billion in this regard should not be considered significant.
