Duplication of accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is on the rise while 28 per cent of accounts are lying dormant, says a survey by financial inclusion consulting firm MicroSave.
According to the survey, conducted in 42 districts spread across 17 states and one union territory, the reasons for duplication of accounts include misconception that account is only for government benefits/subsidy.
“Around 33 per cent of the customers indicated that PMJDY was not their first account, in comparison to 14 per cent in wave II and I. Hence, indications are that fresh account opening drives are encouraging clients to open a second account. Most of these accounts are not used,” the survey said.
MicroSave has been following the progress of PMJDY through three waves (rounds) of surveys. PMJDY Wave-I was conducted in December-2014 followed by Wave-II conducted in July-2015. This report is the third edition of the survey commissioned to examine the progress of PMJDY.
The report noted 31 per cent of multiple account holders (with a bank account in addition to PMJDY) are actively using alternate bank account. Around 28 per cent accounts are dormant, no transactions over the last three months.
“Customers believed that these accounts will remain active at zero-balance also and there was not much of trigger observed to use them,” the survey said.
The survey noted, there has been improvement in Aadhaar linkage status as 62 per cent of the customers interviewed had linked their PMJDY accounts with Aadhaar card, up from 52 per cent in the second round of the survey.
Around 1,627 Bank Mitras and 4,859 customers were covered in the survey.
Earlier RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had cautioned banks on the risks involved in just hunting for numbers with regards to Jan Dhan scheme, asking them not to compromise on core objectives of the programme.
Meanwhile, deposits in accounts opened under the government’s flagship financial inclusion programme have crossed the Rs 30,000 crore mark. As many as 20.38 crore bank accounts were opened under PMJDY as on January 20.
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