Nearly 20 per cent of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts in India are inoperative, the government said on Tuesday. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of State for Finance, Bhagwat K Karad, said that a total of 10.34 crore PMJDY accounts are inoperative, as of December 6, 2023, and amongst these, 4.93 crore accounts belonged to women.
Sharing the data received from banks, out of the total 51.11 crore PMJDY accounts, about 20 per cent remained inoperative, as of December 6, 2023, the minister said.
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He noted that the percentage of inoperative PMJDY accounts remained similar to the percentage of overall inoperative accounts in the banking sector, reported PTI. The data further revealed that the deposited amount in the inoperative PMJDY accounts stood around Rs 12,779 crore, accounting for nearly 6.12 per cent of the overall deposited balance in the PMJDY accounts.
“This balance continues to earn interest at par with that applicable to operative accounts and can be claimed and withdrawn by depositors at any point of time after the account becomes operative again,” Karad said.
Banks are trying to lower the percentage of inoperative accounts and the progress regarding the same is being constantly monitored by the government, the official said. He added that banks have organised camps at the local level to create awareness about healthy banking habits, including the benefits of maintaining an active/operative account.
As such, the percentage of inoperative accounts has reduced from 40 per cent in March 2017 to 20 per cent in November 2023, Karad revealed. According to the guidelines given by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a savings/current account should be considered inoperative/dormant if there are no transactions from the customer’s end in the account for more than two years.
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There could be many reasons behind the account becoming dormant and has no direct relation to the account holder being untraceable. Customers are entitled to submit a request at any point of time to activate their inoperative accounts without being charged for the same. The banks make these accounts active after finishing the required Know Your Customer (KYC) formalities.
Replying to another question, Karad clarified that the transfer of Rs 820 crore to several account holders under the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) facility happened in UCO Bank. The RBI informed that till December 7, 2023, the UCO Bank recovered Rs 705.31 crore from 28,891 accounts.
