Zero-balance bank accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) have declined to just 8% of the total as on August 16, compared to 58% nine years ago, when the scheme was rolled out to provide basic banking facilities to the large unbanked population of the country.
In the first year of the mission, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the financial inclusion drive on August 28, 2014, roughly 85.37 million (or 58%) were zero-balance accounts out of a total of 147.2 million in FY15.
Such zero-balance accounts have declined to 40 million or just 8% of the total 500.9 million.
There is no requirement to maintain any minimum balance in PMJDY accounts, while deposits in such accounts earn interest of 3-4%.
Basic banking facilities and assorted benefits have turned the no-frills accounts into a massive source of low-cost pool of funds for banks with a corpus of `2.03 trillion as of August 16, 2023, compared with Rs 15.6 billion in FY15, an increase of over 1200% in nine years.
Gradually, over the years, many add-on services were made available to the PMJDY beneficiaries such as a Rupay Debit card (339.8 million issued so far), accident insurance cover of `100,000 (enhanced to `200,000 to PMJDY accounts opened after August 28, 2018), and an overdraft (OD) facility up to `10,000 for eligible account holders.
About 62.6 million PMJDY account holders receive direct benefit transfer (DBT) from the government under various schemes.
Annually 20-25 million new account holders are added, taking the total to 500.9 million from about 147.2 million in FY15 under PMJDY. With the saturation of the scheme, the new additions to the scheme will gradually slow down in coming years. However, banks would continue to provide add-on services to this large block of the population whose banking services requirement would increase as they transition into higher income brackets.
PMJDY accounts are eligible for Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Atal Pension Yojana, and Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Bank scheme.
Source:financialexpress.com