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Tag Archives: Paypal india issue
New PayPal Regulations for India
The RBI is making it tougher for Indian Business Owners to use PayPal with every passing day. After the issues faced by Indian PayPal users last year with several payment delays and introduction of purpose codes, now the story has a new twist. Yesterday Paypal sent out new regulations for Indian Paypal users to be applicable from 1st March’2011. And to tell you the truth the latest changes are quite a kick-in-the-***.
Upcoming Changes to Paypal User Agreement for India
With effect from 1 March 2011, you are required to comply with the requirements set out in the notification of the Reserve Bank of India governing the processing and settlement of export-related receipts facilitated by online payment gateways (“RBI Guidelines”).
In order to comply with the RBI Guidelines, our user agreement in India will be amended for the following services as follows:
- Any balance in and all future payments into your PayPal account may not be used to buy goods or services and must be transferred to your bank account in India within 7 days from the receipt of confirmation from the buyer in respect of the goods or services; and
- Export-related payments for goods and services into your PayPal account may not exceed US$500 per transaction.
We seek your understanding as we continue to employ our best efforts to comply with the RBI Guidelines in a timely manner.
What this implies?
Well the fine print implies that you cannot keep any money in your paypal accounts for longer than 7 days and also the money cannot be used to make online purchases of any sorts. The 30 day notice can be used to make any purchases you were holding back for now. For freelancers like me who use primarily paypal for all overseas transactions, this will be a real setback. I make domain, hosting and other service purchases online via Paypal along with accepting payments. This change will make me end up paying extra exchange rates when I pay for services. The 1st exchange rate when I transfer the money to my Indian bank account and second when i pay for the services. I have already renewed couple of domain for the next 2yrs. But one can make only short term changes, it will hit hard in long-term.
I have not had similar communications from MoneyBookers yet but they will have to comply to similar changes as well.
What do you guys think?
Paypal India Issue Resolved – Electronic Transfer to Continue
The first thing I was greeted with this morning when I opened my mailbox was a short mail from Paypal stating that Electronic Transfer for Indians will continue. What seemed a couple of days back when I had received a mail stating that the India Issue is back and Electronic Transfer would be discontinued from 1st August’10 brought a lot of distress among all Indians.
Couple of months back when the same issue over electronic transfer had erupted it had taken them more than a month to come up with a solution(Purpose codes). So today when I say the mail, I feared worse but was pleasantly surprised.
Now Electronic Transfer will still be available from 1st August’10. Also the $5 fee waived off on cheque withdrawal will still be there. I suspect this to be only a temporary thing and it might not be long when the issue is raised again. My advice would be to start testing alternate options and transfer more frequently to your bank accounts.
Without making you read more, the email from Paypal is below:
Dear Piyush Agarwal,
We’ve received good news. You can continue to enjoy electronic withdrawals just as you did before.
While we have received your appreciation for the advanced notice and the refund of the cheque processing fee, we also have heard loud and clear that you highly value the ease-of-use of our electronic withdrawal service. Our customers are our number one priority and we are working tirelessly to improve our service.
Thank you for your patience and in appreciation for your continued support, we will still provide the $5 USD processing fee refund for any cheque withdrawals made from July 29, 2010 until further notice.
For any enquiries, please contact PayPal customer support by logging into your PayPal account and clicking on ‘contact us’ at the bottom of the page.
Thank you,
The PayPal Asia Team
PayPal India Issue Back – Electronic Transfer to be stopped
A few months back PayPal issue had been troubling Indian users in availing payments. For more than a month, Paypal users were left stranded as all the ways of requesting money withdrawal had been blocked.
After a lot of chaos and wait, PayPal came up with a solution according to Indian Regulations which will enable fund transfers with the help of Purpose codes. Things seemed to have been sorted out then and it seemed no more issues will creep in.
But to user’s dismay, the electronic transfers started taking more time than earlier and also since a PAN number was required, users (like me) were not able to operate multiple PayPal accounts. But still everything was fine as money was reaching the users.
This morning I received a mail from PayPal stating that they will be stopping the electronic fund transfer from 1st August’2010 yet again. From 29th July’10, users can request a cheque transfer, fees to which will be reimbursed. Though it is not so clear why these issue are happening, they are surely causing a lot of worry among Indian users as there are thousands of PayPal users in India who rely on it for their daily business and transactions.
As these issues are happening repeatedly, I feel users should now find PayPal alternatives are switch to whichever suits the best. Also check out this list of Indian webstores where you can spend your Paypal money. Below is the email received from Paypal.
In accordance with regulatory instructions, we would like to notify you about a change in our withdrawal functionality in India starting on August 1, 2010. At present you can request for either an electronic or cheque withdrawal of funds from your PayPal account if you are an India user.
From July 29, 2010 onwards, you will only be able to request for a cheque withdrawal of funds from your PayPal account.
While we are working hard to restore the electronic withdrawal service, in the meantime, we are bringing this matter to your attention so that you can plan your future withdrawal activities accordingly.
To request for a cheque withdrawal:1. Log into your PayPal account, click on ‘Withdraw’.
2. Click on the ‘Request a cheque from PayPal’ link.
3. Enter the withdrawal amount and select your mailing address, then click ‘Continue’.
4. Click ‘Submit’ to confirm your request.In order to help you with this change and until further notice, we will refund the $5 USD cheque withdrawal fee to you for cheque withdrawals made on July 29, 2010 onwards.
For any questions, please log into your PayPal account and click ‘Contact Us’ at the bottom of the page.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused from this change in our withdrawal functionality. We will provide ongoing updates to you here. We thank you for your attention and patience as we work tirelessly to resolve this situation as quickly as possible.
Thank you,
The PayPal Asia Team
New Paypal withdrawal Instructions – Using Purpose Code
Here’s the latest update over the Paypal India Issue Resolution. Couple of days back, it was told that Paypal has cleared everything with RBI and will now be implementing new withdrawal policies to mean Indian Regulations.
Though I did provide some Paypal alternatives, who wouldn’t like all Paypal issues to be resolved and start using the account as usual. Currently, all withdrawals from Paypal for Indians have been suspended. Paypal is in the process of implementing withdrawal policy changes, and this service will be available again from March 3rd.
In a latest post on the Paypal Blog, it has been put how Indians can withdraw money from their accounts. The details are mentioned here:
What is the new Paypal Withdrawal policy for Indians?
Under the new policy, users will be asked to enter a new field, “Purpose Code”. This information is required under the laws of India in order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.
How can customers pay?
Now personal payments and transfers have been barred for Indians. So payments can be accepted only via the following methods:
- Using the Pay for Purchases (Goods or Services) tab
- Completing PayPal checkout at your website
- Responding to PayPal “Request Money” instructions (invoices)
- When you instruct PayPal to withdraw your PayPal balance to your bank account in India, you will be required to provide a purpose code for the transaction.
What is a purpose code?
So, a purpose code defines your purpose behind enabling the cross-border transaction. The code will depend on the nature of your business or services provided. Note: This code is different from Importer Exporter Code (IEC) issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. You can find out which Purpose Code is for you via the following table:
| Code | Category | Description | Who should be using it |
| P0101 / P0104 | Export of Goods | Value of export bills negotiated / purchased/discounted etc. (covered under GR/PP/SOFTEX/EC copy of shipping bills etc.) | eBay merchants, jewelers, sellers of collectibles and other such products through eBay and your own websites / catalogues globally.Please note: Cross border shipment of goods and services for which you file GR / PP / SOFTEX / EC forms only should be processed with this code. Use P101 if Deutsche Bank is your banker and P0104 if you bank with any other bank If you have any questions, please check with your bank to help you with the same. |
| P0301 | Travel , Hospitality and Tours | Purchases towards travel (Includes purchases of foreign TCs, currency notes etc over the counter, by hotels, hospitals, Emporiums, Educational institutions etc. as well as amount received by TT/SWIFT transfers or debit to Non-Resident account). | Online Travel Agents, Airlines, Railways, Buses, Taxicab Services, Hotels, B&Bs and other travel / tourism related sales through PayPal |
| P0801P0802 P0803 | Information Technology | Computer Information Services. Hardware / Software / Data Processing consultancy/implementation | If you are an independent / freelance coder / hardware consultant or data processing service provider, or a small business providing such services for websites globally, please use these codes.For all IT related consulting services where you know you do not need to file a SOFTEX form, please use the appropriate code. 801 for hardware consulting, 802 for software consulting and 803 for data management and processing consulting services |
| P0805P0806 | Content and Journalism | News Agency and Subscription services | If you are a freelance journalist / blogger / news aggregator please use this purpose code for withdrawals.If you are a newspaper or an online news aggregator for websites overseas, please use the appropriate code from these two. 805 if you a freelance journalist, and 806 if you are a newspaper / aggregator |
| P0902 | Licensing of creative works | Receipts for use, through licensing arrangements, of produced originals or prototypes (such as manuscripts and films) | Artists, designers, other creative service providers where the principal revenue mode is license fees, please use this code.If you produce creative works which you license out for entities overseas, licensing revenues may be classified under this purpose code |
| P1004 | Other services | Legal Services | If you are providing outsourced law related services |
| P1005 | Accounting, auditing, book keeping and tax consulting services | For accounting consulting and accounting services | |
| P1006 | Business and management consultancy and public relations services | Management / brand consulting and management services can be exported with this purpose code | |
| P1007 | Advertising, trade fair, market research and public opinion polling services | Marketing/ brand consulting / logo design / event management services can be exported with this purpose code | |
| P1008 | Research & Development services | If you are an outsourced research and development services provider based in India, receipts can be inwarded through this purpose code | |
| P1009 | Architectural, engineering and other technical services | Any other technical services such as eTutoring, education and other services you render over the internet via web conferencing tools or similar channels, please use this code for your withdrawals |
If you are not sure about your code from the table above, you can contact the Paypal customer care, by logging in to the site.
Also, Paypal cannot be used for Charity and Donations. It has to be used for Goods and Services.
Hope, this will resolve most of the issues and everyone will be able to withdraw money. Based on the purpose code, banks may tend to ask for Invoice details. Withdrawal resumes from 3rd March’10.
People who were using Paypal for personal remittances, cannot use it so further. They can get back their money deposited via Cheque withdrawal. Hope you found this information useful, do leave your queries below.
Paypal India Issue resolved but partially
The last month has been pretty rough for thousands of Indian PayPal account holders especially merchants and businesses which do daily transactions. I myself have not been able to make any paypal withdrawals for more than a month, so I understand the frustration. I used an Xoom to withdraw money to Indian banks.
If you have not been aware till now, you can have a quick read on the issues via this blog about the paypal issues for Indians and an open letter from Farhad Irani. In a nutshell, Indian PayPal account holders have not been able to withdraw money to their local banks since the past month following some issues Reserve bank of India(RBI) and also they have stopped allowing personal gift transfers.
Just today I received an e-mail from Paypal stating that they have resolved the issue and still in talks with RBI to put strict regulations in practice. There will be a new exporters code field added and this detail will be required to enable transactions. This makes it possible for business owners to start withdrawing money to their local bank accounts but individual vendors are still at distress. Individual payments are still suspended.
Paypal has not yet published the complete information about the process that will be followed henceforth but the same would be conveyed by 1st March. Following is the email received from Paypal:
Dear Paypal User,
We have been diligently working with the RBI and our business partners to resume Indian bank withdrawals for the thousands of Indian businesses who depend on PayPal to sell their goods or services in the global marketplace. Today, we are happy to announce that the RBI has allowed us to continue local bank withdrawals for settlements for exports of goods and services.
We are currently making changes to comply with Indian regulations for settlements for exports of goods and services, and we anticipate that, as of Wednesday, March 3rd, customers will be able to use our bank withdrawal service. As part of the changes, you will be required to fill out a new field entitled ‘Export Code’ when you request a withdrawal. This information is required under the current laws of India in order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.
On Monday, March 1st, we will be back in touch with specific instructions on how you can move your money into your bank account.
Moving forward, the RBI has told us that PayPal needs specific approvals to allow personal remittances to India, which we currently do not have. Until we get these approvals, personal payments into India will remain suspended.
However, if you are an exporter, you will continue to be able to use the PayPal service for payments of goods and services. In fact, with the changes we are making to our system, PayPal is now set to be a more powerful engine for exporters in India. With purpose codes for export transactions and FIRCs (Foreign Inward Remittance Certificates), you should now be able to get the export related benefits you seek.
Sincerely,
PayPal
Though the above mail did bring a wave of relief to the business entities, the individuals are still left at vain. This issue needs to be resolved fast as the major part of the account holders are individual entities.
You can also withdraw money from PayPal to Indian Bank via Xoom. Get money in 2-3 days.
For more info, check out: ThePaypalBlog
Added to that: I would like you all to know that while the paypal issue was at its peek, I was trying out other services available and after quite an analysis and trials, I found MoneyBookers proving to be quite a worthy service and is a good Paypal alternative. If you haven’t tried it yet, do try. Though the paypal is going to be resolved, its always better to have more options. Signup for MoneyBookers…
Update: Find out how to withdraw money from Paypal with the help purpose code here.