New Delhi: Many banks, including the country’s largest bank SBI, are recovering excess charges from poor people on zero balance accounts or basic savings bank deposit accounts (BSBDA) for certain services. This is revealed in a study by IIT Bombay.
The study says that SBI has decided to impose a charge of Rs 17.70 on every withdrawal transaction after four on BSBD account holders, which cannot be considered fair. The report said that during 2015-20, SBI has raised more than Rs 300 crore by imposing service charges on 12 crore BSBD account holders. The number of BSBD account holders of Punjab National Bank, the country’s second-largest government bank, is 3.9 crore. The bank has collected Rs 9.9 crore from these account holders during this period.
Systematic violation of RBI regulations
The report says that there is a systematic violation of the RBI regulations on BSBDA by some banks. SBI’s name comes first among them. After one month of four withdrawal transactions by SBI, Rs 17.70 is being charged on each transaction.
SBI raised Rs 300 crore from about 12 crore BSBD account holders
IIT Bombay professor Ashish Das said, “Through these service charges, SBI has raised Rs 300 crore from about 12 crore BSBD account holders. Of this, in 2018-19 alone 72 crore rupees were raised. After this, 158 crore rupees were raised in 2019-20.
Charges on BSBDA are being levied on the basis of the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of September 2013. It states that these account holders will have the right to withdraw more than four times in a month. This will be at the discretion of the bank, provided the bank does not recover the charges for it.
Defining aspects of BSBDA, it is stated that as per regulatory requirements, it has been clarified that as long as the savings deposit account is BSBDA, the bank will not be subject to any service charges or value added services offered by the bank on a discretionary basis. No charge can be levied. It states that the Reserve Bank considers more than four withdrawals in a month as Value Added Services.
