The variety of financial institution accounts underneath the PM Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which completes 9 years on Monday, has crossed 50 crore this month with whole deposits exceeding ₹2 lakh crore, Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi mentioned on Saturday.
As of August 16, 50.09 crore PMJDY accounts had been opened with whole deposits at ₹2,03,505 crore, up from 48.65 crore accounts with deposits of ₹1.98 lakh crore as on March 31. The deposits in these accounts have greater than doubled over the previous 52 months from ₹96,107 crore in March 2019.
With the common deposit in PMJDY accounts, rising to ₹4,063, the federal government is now working with banks and line ministries to influence account holders to go for micro insurance coverage schemes like PMJJBY (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana) and the accident insurance coverage scheme, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana.
“We don’t want to make these schemes compulsory but are trying the persuasion route, with banks holding financial literacy camps and special drives to make people aware of the benefits,” Mr. Joshi mentioned. “We are also co-ordinating with ministries that have a field-level presence such as anganwadi or Asha workers,” the highest official overseeing banking companies added.
“We are also examining the use of databases such as the E-Shram portal of the Labour Ministry to identify people who we believe may not be covered,” he mentioned.
Separately, efforts have been additionally underway to enhance the entry of PMJDY account holders to micro-credit and micro-investment choices similar to versatile recurring deposits. As balances rise, routing a part of the financial savings right into a recurring deposit might assist them get higher returns, an official identified.
The variety of zero stability accounts had dropped sharply from 58% in March 2015 to only 8% of whole PMJDY accounts, Mr. Joshi mentioned. Women made up 56% of the account holders, and 67% of the accounts have been in rural and semi-urban areas.
The use of digital funds by way of Rupay playing cards and UPI (Unified Payment Interface) had additionally shot up amongst PMJDY account holders and efforts have been underway to reinforce the acceptance infrastructure for such funds. As of this month, virtually 34 crore account holders had been issued Rupay playing cards.
As many as 32 lakh account holders had availed the overdraft services amounting to ₹370 crore. (*50*) August 2018, the federal government had enhanced the overdraft restrict from ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 and elevated the age restrict for the ability from 60 years to 65 years.
