The directive comes in the wake of a complaint by consumer activist M R Pai to the Chairman and Managing Director of BoI, S Rajgopal, on June 22. The bank's D N Road branch had levied Pai a service charge of Rs 15 for a demand draft of Rs 1,000 for `Army Central Welfare Fund' set up for the benefit of Indian soldiers fighting on Kargil front.

``The DD of Rs 1000 was my humble contribution towards the cause of our brave jawans fighting for our security at the border; hence it did leave a bad taste in the mouth when the bank, rather insensitively, billed me the service charges,'' Pai told Express Newsline. He however admitted that Rs 15 was a small amount.

``It is customary to allow free remittance of funds to the armed forces, specially in a situation like this where our brave jawans are laying down their lives so that citizens like us canlive in security,'' wrote Pai.

Taking immediate note of Pai's letter the General Manager S K Puri replied, ``At the outset we regret that the `service charges' were levied and we have advised the branch to refund the same immediately.'' Puri has further stated that all the BoI branches have been instructed not to levy any charges for defence personnel in active service.