Deposits in Jan Dhan accounts cross Rs. 1-trillion mark
- IBEF
- July 11, 2019
Bank accounts opened under Jan Dhan scheme, which was launched about five years ago by the Modi-government, have crossed the Rs. 1 lakh crore (US$ 139 billion) mark in deposits.
According to the recent finance ministry data, the total balance in over 36.06 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts was at Rs. 1,00,495.94 crore (US$ 139.68 billion) as on 3 July.
The account of the beneficiaries has seen a constant rise in deposits and was Rs. 99,649.84 crore (US$ 138.51 billion) on 6 June and Rs. 99,232.71 crore (US$ 137.93 billion) in the week before.
The yojna was introduced on 28 August 2014, with an idea to support universal access to banking facilities to the people in the country
Accounts opened under PMJDY are Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) accounts with supplementary feature of RuPay debit card and overdraft.
The number of zero balance accounts under PMJDY has seen a decline from 5.10 crore (US$ 0.69 million)(16.22 per cent of the total accounts) in March 2018 to 5.07 crore (US$ 0.70 million) (14.37 per cent of the total accounts) in March 2019, as per stated by finance minister.
There is no requirement of maintaining minimum balance in BSBD accounts.
The government boosted the accident insurance cover to Rs 2 lakh (US$ 2780) from Rs 1 lakh (US$ 1390) for new accounts opened after August 28, 2018. The overdraft limit has also been doubled to Rs 10,000 (US$ 139).
There has been shift in the attention on accounts from 'every household' to 'every unbanked adult'. Around 50 per cent of the Jan Dhan account owners are women.
The objective of PMJDY is to guarantee access to various financial services like availability of basic savings bank account, access to need based credit, remittances facility, insurance and pension to weaker sections and low-income groups.
The PMJDY also foresees directing all government benefits to the beneficiary accounts and promoting the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme of the central government.
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.
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