Mumbai: Claiming that RBI's concerns have been allayed, a top finance ministry official today said banks have opened 5.1 crore new accounts under the flagship Jan Dhan programme and collected Rs 3,600 crore in deposits.
Rs 3,600 crore have been collected till September 26 in the Jan Dhan accounts since its launch of the ambitious programme on August 28, Financial Services Secretary G S Sandhu told reporters.
Opening of 5.1 crore accounts means meeting 70 per cent of the target of 7.5 crore set by the government by January 26, 2015, he said.
Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan had earlier this month flagged concerns on the speed at which the scheme was being rolled out.
“We have to make sure it does not go off track. The target is universality, not just speed and numbers,” Rajan had told a bankers' summit earlier this month.
“We have discussed with RBI, with the Governor and other functionaries there. We are all one. There are no differences now,” Sandhu said today, adding that RBI is supporting the scheme and is also talking to banks.
On concerns like duplication of accounts, Sandhu said the banks will be seeding the account with the Aadhar numbers and link the biometric details of the account holders which will make it impossible to duplicate.
As for the fear that such accounts may stay dormant, Sandhu said bankers are asking people to deposit money even though these are zero-balance savings accounts. On an average Rs 800-900 is being deposited in these accounts, Sandhu said, adding this will help in increasing the savings and keep the accounts active.
The government will be transferring the subsidies directly to these accounts which will also help, Sandhu said.
However, he conceded that at present 50 percent of the 20 crore accounts opened under financial inclusion programme are inactive.
The Jan Dhan scheme was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address.
Each Jan Dhan account comes with Rs 5,000 overdraft facility, a Rs 1 lakh accident cover and a RuPay debit card.
The banks have so far distributed the RuPay debit cards to only 1.2 crore account-holders because of the high demand for the cards, Sandhu said, assuring that gradually everybody will get the card.
Sandhu also said his department has got the corporate affairs ministry to approve corporate contributions to financial literacy as a part of mandatory CSR spend.
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