As per present guidelines of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), from November 1, 2014, banks are mandated to offer minimum five free transactions per month in own bank ATMs and three in other bank ATMs in six metro centres (Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad). In non-metro centres, minimum five free transactions per month in own bank ATMs and five in other bank ATMs are mandated. Banks are free to offer free transactions above the mandated limit specified by RBI.

As on 24th February, 2016, Department of Posts (DoP) has installed 550 ATMs out of a target of 1000 ATMs in various parts of the country.

As on 31.12.2015, Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) have 193434 ATMs across the country, out of which 33249 ATMs are in Rural Centres and 51925 in semi-urban centres. In order to expand the reach of ATMs in Tier III centres (population between 20,000 to 49,999) to Tier VI centre (population less than 5000), RBI has permitted non-bank entities incorporated in India. Three different schemes are available to such While Label ATM operators for setting of While Label ATMs (WLAs), which incentivize setting up of WLAs in Tier III to Tier VI centres, details of which are available in RBI Circular No. DPSS.CO.PD.No. 2298. 10.002.2011-2012 dated 20.6.2012 available on RBI’s website (https://rbi.org.in). as on 31.2.2015, 11706 WLAs have been set up.

This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

Minimum free ATM transactions mandated with differing metro and non metro requirements; banks may offer additional free transactions. Minimum free ATM transactions are mandated by regulatory guidelines with distinct metro and non metro requirements, while banks may offer additional free transactions beyond the mandated baseline. Regulatory policy also permits non bank entities to operate white label ATMs under incentive schemes to expand ATM reach into smaller population centres; a published circular details these schemes and a substantial number of white label ATMs have been set up.