Jan Dhan Balance Tops Rs 5,000 Crore Mark, Nearly 7 Crore Accounts Opened
Latest data collated by the finance ministry showed that on November 3, 6.98 crore bank accounts had been opened across the country, with Rs 5,300 crore parked in them. Just a tad under 4 crore RuPay cards had been issued to these account holders, with the remaining expected to get the ATM card over the next few weeks, officials said.
At the current pace, it's a matter of days before bank employees help the government scale the target of opening 7.5 crore bank accounts under the financial inclusion scheme launched on August 29. The government was looking to achieve the target before January 26, 2015, well ahead of the earlier schedule of August 15, 2015. But with the target within reach, the finance ministry is now looking at doubling the target to open 15 crore accounts, said an official.
While banks have been ahead of the curve in opening bank accounts, the run rate for deposit accumulation has started picking up now. At current levels, each Jan Dhan account has a balance of around Rs 750. Initially, the average balance in each account was around Rs 500.
Historically financial inclusion accounts have been low value accounts for public sector banks with balances of less than Rs 1,000. For banks, experts said, the challenge is to ensure that the accounts remain active and account holders keep depositing funds as low account balance have in the past deterred bankers from pushing financial inclusion.
This time, however, the government is hoping that cash transfer into the accounts will ensure that transactions take place and sufficient balance is maintained. With the finance ministry also proposing overdraft facility based on the financial history of an account holders, there is an added attraction to maintain a healthy balance.
A recent report by Boston Consulting Group, Ficci and the Indian Banks' Association had pointed out that among the 16 crore no-frills accounts opened before Jan Dhan's launch, only a quarter had a single transaction last year. Similarly, a quarter actually had a balance. "In effect, five years of effort has led to about 20% addition to active savings bank accounts in the nation," said the report, released in September.
Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, CMD of micro finance institution Bandhan Financial Services, which recently got RBI permission to set up a bank network, told TOI on Tuesday that the challenge for banks is to deliver services at the doorstep. "The Jan Dhan Yojana is a very good initiative to open the accounts but how banks design the products and services and bring it to the doorstep that is the issue. You need to inculcate the habit of banking with those customers," he said. Source
