Deposits in Jan Dhan accounts cross Rs 1 lakh crore

Deposits in bank accounts opened under Jan Dhan scheme, launched about five years ago by the Modi-government, have crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark.

As per the latest finance ministry data, the total balance in over 36.06 crores Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts was at Rs 1,00,495.94 crore as on July 3.

The deposits in the account of the beneficiaries, which has been steadily rising, was Rs 99,649.84 crore on June 6 and Rs 99,232.71 crore in the week before.

The PMJDY was launched on August 28, 2014, with an aim to provide universal access to banking facilities to the people in the country.

Accounts opened under PMJDY are Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) accounts with the additional feature of RuPay debit card and an overdraft.

The finance ministry had recently said in the Rajya Sabha that the number of zero balance accounts under PMJDY declined from 5.10 crore (16.22 per cent of the total accounts) in March 2018 to 5.07 crore (14.37 per cent of the total accounts) in March 2019.

More than 28.44 crore account holders have been issued the Rupay debit cards.

There is no requirement of maintaining a minimum balance in BSBD accounts.

Enthused by the success of the scheme, the government enhanced the accident insurance cover to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 1 lakh for new accounts opened after August 28, 2018.

The overdraft limit has also been doubled to Rs 10,000.

The government also shifted the focus on accounts from 'every household' to 'every unbanked adult'.

Over 50 per cent of the Jan Dhan account holders is women.

The objective of PMJDY is to ensure 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 envisages channelling all government benefits to the beneficiary accounts and pushing the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme of the central government.