Finance Minister Announces No Minimum Balance Requirement for Jan Dhan and Basic Savings Accounts
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman declared in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that there will be no compulsory minimum balance requirements for Jan Dhan as well as basic savings accounts. She clarified that banks will only levy penalties in cases where customers fail to maintain the necessary amount in their accounts.
In response to concerns raised about public sector banks imposing penalties totalling about Rs 8,500 crore on customers over five years for non-compliance with minimum balance regulations, the minister emphasized that this policy does not apply to PM Jan Dhan accounts and the basic accounts of economically disadvantaged individuals. Sitharaman stressed that the requirement for maintaining a certain level of minimum balance only pertains to other account holders.
Revelations from a written reply in the Lok Sabha indicated that public sector banks accumulated approximately Rs 8,500 crore from penalties related to non-maintenance of minimum balances over the five-year period commencing from FY 2019-20. Furthermore, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary disclosed in the Lok Sabha last month that state-owned banks imposed a total penalty of Rs 2,331 crore on depositors for failing to uphold the average monthly minimum balance in FY24.