MANILA, Philippines?A bill seeking to promote transparency in the delivery of automated teller machine (ATM) services has been filed in the Senate, amid complaints by users of arbitrary charges imposed on them for various uses, including account balance inquiries.

Senate Bill No. 3046, authored by Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, seeks to require operators of ATMs to properly disclose how much they charge customers that inquire about the balance of their accounts.

Under the bill, ATM operators will only be allowed to impose charges for balance inquiry only if the ATM screen gives a notification about the amount of charge per inquiry. The bill also states that ATM systems must allow a customer to cancel a supposed balance-inquiry transaction without being charged for doing so.

?ATM operators who set up their system to charge consumers for simply requesting a balance inquiry are doing nothing more than taking advantage of their customers,? Santiago said in the bill?s explanatory note.

?This bill seeks to require ATM operators to provide a notice disclosing to the consumer that a fee will be imposed for providing the balance inquiry and shall require that the same be displayed on the ATM screen during the transaction,? Santiago said.

The bill states that violators would be made to pay a fine of between P10,000 and P50,0000, and may be imprisoned for anywhere from two months to one year.

Sen. Francis Escudero, chairman of the Senate committee on banks and financial intermediaries, said hearings on the Senate bill have already started.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and private banks were asked by the Senate committee to submit position papers on the Senate bill, Escudero said.

?They (banks) claim there are no hidden charges, and that it is the policy of the BSP to allow free competition to dictate charges,? Escudero said.