PM Jan Dhan and basic savings accounts are exempt from the minimum account balance requirements, according to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement on Wednesday.
Basic savings accounts and PM Jan Dhan accounts are exempt from the minimum account balance requirement. In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha regarding the Rs 8,500 crore fine that public sector banks have collected over the last five years from customers who fail to maintain the minimum balance in their bank accounts, the Finance Minister stated that the penalty only applies to those bank accounts where customers are required to maintain a certain minimum balance in their accounts.
Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Punjab and Sind Bank, Union Bank of India Bank, UCO Bank, Indian Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, and Central Bank of India are among the government banks that imposed fines for failing to maintain the minimum balance.
Last month, Pankaj Chaudhary, the Minister of State (MoS) for Finance, informed the Lok Sabha that public sector banks had amassed a fine of Rs 2,331 crore in FY24 for failing to maintain the required balance.
The MoS stated, “This amount was 25% more than the amount from last year.”
The non-maintenance of minimum balance resulted in penalties of Rs 633 crore collected by Punjab National Bank, Rs 386 crore by Bank of Baroda, and Rs 369 crore by Indian Bank in the fiscal year 2023–2024.
The Union government’s financial inclusion initiative, known as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (Jan Dhan or PMJDY), aims to increase financial literacy, provide access to credit, insurance, and pension facilities, and establish at least one basic banking account per family.
Since their launch in 2014, PMJDY accounts have accounted for roughly 23% of all savings accounts in India.
As of July 19, 2024, 52.81 crore Jan Dhan accounts under PMJDY had been opened, with a total deposit balance of Rs. 2,30,792 crores, according to PIB data.
Approximately 35.15 crore (66.6%) PMJDY accounts have been opened in rural and semi-urban areas, and 29.37 crore (55.6%) Jan Dhan accounts belong to women.
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