September 6: Nepal Rastra Bank has reduced the cash withdrawal limit from ATMs following the hacking of ATMs in Nepal by Chinese nationals last Saturday.

As per the new provision, customers can withdraw a maximum of Rs 60,000 per day from ATM using debit card and Rs 20,000 in one transaction. Prior to this, customers were allowed to withdraw Rs 100,000 per day and Rs 25,000 per transaction.

Likewise, the central bank has instructed departmental stores, marts, hotels, shops and other merchants not to collect additional charges from customers for electronic transaction through Point of Sales (PoS) machines.

NRB issued such directive after receiving complaints that the customers had to pay between 1 to 3 percent of the total bill while using PoS machine.

Meanwhile, the committee formed to investigate the theft of millions of rupees by Chinese hackers has suggested the concerned government body introduce mandatory provision for using chip-based cards. The committee has suggested the government to phase out non-chip based cards within three months.