According to the report on Jan-Dhan Account Scheme prepared by IIT-Mumbai, SBI during April, 2017 to September, 2020, in lieu of UPI and RuPay transactions from ordinary savings accounts opened under Jan-Dhan Yojana. A total fee of over Rs 254 crore was collected. Know the details.
New Delhi: SBI has presented its clarification on the issue of digital payment from the account holders of Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana. In fact, some time back there was a report on SBI, in which it was said that the bank collected undue charges of Rs 164 crore from the account holders of Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana during April, 2017 to December, 2019 in lieu of digital payments. Haven’t returned yet.
IIT Bombay report
It is worth noting that the government had directed the bank to return this fee collected by the bank to the customers. But according to this report, SBI has returned only Rs 90 crore so far, an amount of Rs 164 crore is yet to be returned. This was revealed in a report prepared by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay on the Jan Dhan account scheme.
Press Release w.r.t. a news article published on 22.11.2021.#SBI #DigitalBanking #DigitalTransactions #FinancialInclusion pic.twitter.com/JtEBcjzLvV
— State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) November 22, 2021
SBI gave its clarification
Now SBI has given its clarification on this report by issuing a press release. The bank said that it is following the instructions of all the government and concerned authorities in this regard. The bank said, ‘A news article has surfaced on November 22, 2021, which states that SBI is not refunding the charges taken on digital transactions.’
The bank said, ‘We would like to clarify that we are fully complying with the government and regulatory bodies in this regard. With effect from January 1, 2020, the bank has made all its digital transactions free of charge. At the same time, four cash withdrawals in a month are also free for the customers.
Know what was the whole matter?
IIT Bombay presented a report on SBI. According to this, SBI had collected over Rs 254 crore in total charges for UPI and RuPay transactions from ordinary savings accounts opened under Jan-Dhan scheme during April, 2017 to September, 2020. In this, a fee of Rs 17.70 was charged from the account holders per transaction on behalf of the bank. This move of SBI put Jan Dhan account holders doing digital transactions at a big disadvantage.
The government showed strictness!
It has also been said in the report that this attitude of SBI was complained to the Finance Ministry in August, 2020 on which the bank also took action. Subsequently, the Central Board of Direct Taxes on August 30, 2020, issued an advisory for banks to refund the fee charged from the account holders with effect from January 1, 2020, and no such charges would be levied in future. After this SBI also started the process of refund of fee on February 17, 2021.
