Indian customers of PayPal left in the lurch for no fault of theirs!
This shock comes as a bolt from the blue for unwary Indians, who have PayPal accounts. The hitherto most-trustworthy Internet Bank has acted in a manner unethical to the Banking Service. It has now announced that the ban on financial transactions of customers of Indian origin, arbitrarily imposed by PayPal, will continue for “at least a few months”.
According to reports this ban has been in vogue from last Saturday. People from various parts of India came to know of this ban – overtly covered as “a problem” by PayPal when they, as usual, contacted the Internet Bank, for withdrawal of money from their personal account. These withdrawals will be routed through their respective Indian bank branches where they have accounts. Normally this withdrawal would take 6 to 8 days maximum.
PayPal has been sending messages of this “problem” (without telling the truth) to those requested withdrawal of money. But now the cat is out of the bag. In the PayPal site’s official blog, the spokesman of the Bank writes:
“1. Why did you suspend local bank transfers and personal payments to and from India?
We temporarily suspended these services to respond to enquiries from the Indian regulators, specifically questions on whether personal payments constitute remittances into India.
We’re working with the regulators and our bank processing partners in India to get this resolved as quickly as we can. We realize that this is causing considerable inconvenience to our customers and I want to reassure you that this is a top priority for the leadership at PayPal
2. When will personal payments be turned back on?
The regulators recently let PayPal know about revised licensing rules that we are now actively engaged in securing. Personal payments to and from India will be suspended for at least a few months until we fully resolve the questions from the Indian regulators.
3. When will local bank withdrawals be available?
Customers should be able to withdraw their funds to a local bank within the next few days. In the meantime, we’re going to restore the money into the PayPal accounts of any customers in India who have initiated a recent withdrawal, so they know that the money is safe in their accounts. Customers will also be reimbursed for any withdrawal fee charges.”
Investigative reports appearing in the Press claim that there is a tussle between Indian regulators of foreign funds and PayPal. This Internet Bank, which is a leader on financial transactions online is said to have handled payments alone worth $60 million in 2008. The withdrawal of payments by Indians is suspected as “remittances of foreign funds” into India stealthily. A low tariff of just $1.50 to remit $300 has raised the doubts in the minds of authorities.
The question is where does PayPal customers come into this tussle between the Indian law makers and PayPal Bank? The Bank has the predominant obligation to serve its customers without any hindrance whatsoever. Suspending the normal functions of a Bank and facilities legitimately enjoyed by its customers, without any prior notice is, to put it mildly, totally unethical.
Already the aggrieved customers have raised their objections through blogs – more than 150 pages of comments have been posted. Simply put, common people are taken for granted by both the Bank and Rulers of India.
It is high time that somebody raised an issue with International Authorities for net world banking to get remedy to this unfair commercial practice. Unquestionably, this is discrimination pure and simple of Indian customers. In a netbanking system common to all countries of the world, this sort of discrimination should be vehemently deplored by the world community.
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