A few years back, the nationalized banks introduced a fee for attesting documents such as bank mandate forms that are required to be submitted for mutual funds and elsewhere. These types of forms require the bank details of the account holder (name, account type, number etc), IFSC, MICR and signatures of the account holder. This form needs to be attested by the bank manager. Earlier the amount charged for attestation by the State Bank of India was Rs. 100 which is now increased to Rs.172. Could the SBI authorities firstly clarify why a customer needs to provide such a mandate form? Secondly, why is there a necessity for the bank to authenticate this form? Thirdly, why do customers need to pay the attestation charges? As a part of bank-customer relation, this service should be free. Else there should be a fixed number of free attestations in a year and beyond that a nominal fee could be charged. This could be similar to operating of lockers where a customer is charged if the usage limit is exceeded in a year.