If you have also opened a Jan Dhan account in the bank, then you do not need to worry about the minimum balance. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has clearly said on Tuesday that there is no need to maintain a minimum balance in Jan Dhan accounts.
Apart from this, there is no compulsion to maintain a minimum balance in the basic savings account as well.
Finance Minister’s statement on Jan Dhan accounts
He said that banks impose penalty only in cases where customers fail to maintain the required amount in their bank accounts which have already prescribed minimum balance rule.
Sitharaman said that the penalty being charged by banks does not apply to PM Jan Dhan accounts and basic accounts for poor people. The penalties charged by the bank are separate accounts, and a minimum balance is expected in them, if not maintained, the bank levies a charge.
Banks recovered 8500 crore rupees for not maintaining minimum balance in 5 years
Let us tell you, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, it came to light that public sector banks raised about Rs 8,500 crore in this item in the five years starting from the financial year 2019-20.
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Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Choudhary also informed the Lok Sabha last month that state-owned banks have collected a penalty of Rs 2,331 crore from depositors for not maintaining the average monthly minimum balance in FY24.
More Jan Dhan accounts in the name of women
Pankaj Chaudhary told in the Lok Sabha that the number of women Jan Dhan accounts is 55.6 percent of the total Jan Dhan accounts. Apart from this, about Rs 29.37 crore is deposited in the accounts of women Jan Dhan account holders. Meanwhile, a new update has come regarding PM Jan Dhan Account. The number of PM Jan Dhan accounts in the country has increased to 52.81 crores, while the amount deposited in the account is Rs 2,30,792 crore (ie about Rs 2.3 lakh crore).
Let us tell you, in the year 2014, the government started the PM Jan Dhan Yojana under the National Mission for Financial Inclusion. The objective of this scheme is to provide banking services to every family deprived of banking facilities, apart from this, the objective was also to promote savings.