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The total balance in basic bank accounts under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) reached ₹1.80-lakh crore.
As on December 30, 2022, the total balance stood at ₹1,80,857 crore with 47.84 crore beneficiaries. Out of this, 26.54 crore are women.
The beneficiaries in semi urban and rural areas are in majority at about 32 crore while rest of the accounts are with urban and metro bank branches, according to the latest Government data.
The RuPay debit cards issue, however, appears to be slow at only 32.53 crore, as per the data.
“The year-on-year growth is robust as the total balance and number of beneficiaries stood at ₹1.50 lakh crore and 44 crore, respectively in December 2021,’‘ a senior SBI official told businessline.
Unlike earlier years, the number of zero balance accounts are coming down showing ‘greater acceptability’ and use of the accounts mainly by the poorer sections of the women, the official said adding that accounts were increasingly being operated by the customers. As per RBI data, the percentage of zero balance accounts was at 8.2 per cent as of August 2022.
An official of a public sector bank said the slow issue of RuPay Debit cards is becoming a `concern’ as regular use of debit cards and operations in accounts are linked to the roll out of some benefits of the flagship financial inclusion scheme of the Centre.
Under the Jan Dhan scheme, the RuPay card comes with an inbuilt accident insurance cover of ₹1 lakh, for up to 90 days after the cardholder carries out a successful financial or non-financial transaction at a merchant establishment, ATM or e-commerce platform.
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