NEW DELHI: Several banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), have been imposing excessive charges on certain services provided to poor persons having zero-balance or Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts (BSBDA), a study by the IIT-Bombay has revealed.
The study observed that the SBI’s decision to levy a charge of Rs 17.70 for every debit transaction beyond four by the BSBDA account holders cannot be considered as “reasonable.”
It highlighted that the imposition of service charges resulted in undue collections to the tune of over Rs 300 crore from among nearly 12 crore Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA) holders of SBI during the period 2015-20.
India’s second-largest public sector lender Punjab National Bank, which has 3.9 crore BSBD accounts, collected Rs 9.9 crore during the same period.
“There had been systematic breach in the RBI regulations on BSBDAs by few banks, most notably by the SBI that hosts the maximum number of BSBDAs, when it charged @ Rs 17.70 for every debit transaction (even via digital means) beyond four a month.
“This imposition of service charges resulted in undue collections to the tune of over Rs 300 crore from among nearly 12 crore BSBDA holders of SBI during the period 2015-20, of which the period 2018-19 alone saw a collection of Rs 72 crore and the period 2019-20, Rs 158 crore,” the study by IIT Bombay professor Ashish Das stated.
Levying of charges on BSBDA is guided by September 2013 RBI guidelines. As per the direction these accounts holders are allowed more than four withdrawals’ in a month, at the bank’s discretion provided the bank does not charge for the same.
—PTI

Press Trust of India