HDFC starts charging for NEFT

So, here's the flip-flop. Uptil June '09, the HDFC bank charged its customers for using the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) facility. Of course, there was much ado and hue-and-cry around the issue. HDFC appeared to buckle under pressure and withdrew this charge around July '09. Guess what?! It's back! INR 5.00/- (plus applicable taxes) for transfers upto INR 1,00,000.00/-, and INR 25.00/- (plus applicable taxes) for transfers of INR 1,00,000.00/- and beyond (the maximum amount being INR 10,00,000.00/-).

After reading up the articles posted by customers on the net, there appears to be a very humble noise; but not too much. Most tech-savvy customers (like me, obviously) often like to work on such nitty-gritty nuances from their homely abodes. This only means that they'll have to chug out their dusty ol' cheque-books once again. Of course, don't miss that SBI and ICICI Bank, I'm told, have these charges too. But ICICI appears to have withdrawn (for how long, I wonder).

Anyway, I decided to put some numbers into the gig. So, let's get to it.
1. Assume that every branch of the bank (not an ATM-only branch, obviously) has an employee who spends some time in processing cheques. Let's also assume that this one person (point #1) works 10 hours a day for 280 days of the year. I'm guessing that this person would earn close to INR 2,80,000.00/- per annum (or simply INR 1,000.00/- per day).
2. Assume that every such branch processess at least 2,000/- cheques a day (I believe that this number would be optimistic, but w.t.h.). Given the number and sizes of various banks in the country, let's assume that the consumer is quite intelligent and only 5% of the cheques are intra-bank (or simply put, transfer cheques). All the rest have to go to the respective clearing banks. Therefore, there would be some cost associated to the couriering of these cheques to the central clearing houses etc. A rough estimate puts that number at approx. INR 450.00/- per day. About right?
3. That, to me, translates to approximately INR 0.50/- (fifty paise) per cheque. Ok. So far so good.
4. Let's now move to the cost of printing the cheque and the instruments used to print the cheque details, the ink cost, etc. Add to that the cost of the courier used to send the chequebook to the customer. All this would, all told, put an additional burden of around INR 2.00/- per cheque leaf. About right?
5. So, we're at about INR 2.50/- per cheque.
6. Let's see now, writing on the cheque - discounted, checking the financial systems for availability of funds - included in the processing cost, and I can't think of anything else, except one item. Cost of depositing the cheque to the drop-box :).
7. In my past experience, the amount spent to deposit cheques ranges from zero to about INR 50/- depending on where your branch is and how you commute. Given all the knowns, and the sheer skewed demographics, I'm willing to lay a bet that the cost of deposit of a single leaf of cheque is around INR 2.50/-.

Volla!!! That makes it 5 bucks! Doesn't it? I'm wagering that this amount is more than 5 bucks. However, a big part is absorbed by the bank.

Hence, I'll get back to the cheque-book. Let the bank pay for the facility; why should I suffer 5 bucks, unnecessarily :).