THE Reserve Bank of Fiji has extended its consultation period for surcharge fees on debit and credit card transactions after initially announcing its plans to intervene and rule on the matter.
The bank said it was pleased with the quality and number of submissions received and maintained the present status quo of no surcharge rule.
The bank has extended the deadline from May 31 to July to accommodate submissions from key players, the bank said.
"The process from here is that we expect the evaluation to be completed in July and preliminary findings released to respondents for final comments.
"A final decision will be made by the Reserve Bank of Fiji board in August," it said.
In an earlier statement on the matter, the bank said it had established that credit card merchants were in the practice of applying a surcharge on credit card users despite clauses in their merchant trade agreement with commercial banks which explicitly prohibited the practice.
"The rule in the Merchant Services Agreement which prohibits merchants in Fiji charging their customers is commonly known as the no-surcharge rule.
"Despite this rule, it has become obvious that merchants still surcharge their customers," the bank said.