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Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which was launched in 2014 to further the financial-inclusion process in the country, seems to have gathered momentum in some northern States post demonetisation.
With its area and size of population, Uttar Pradesh tops in opening new PMJDY accounts after demonetisation. In fact, one-fifth of the more than five crore new PMJDY accounts in the Indian banking system came from Uttar Pradesh alone.
Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal cumulatively added another 2.2 crore new accounts in the last one year.
While the total number of PMJDY accounts crossed four crore and three crore in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, respectively, the number crossed the one-crore mark in Assam, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Karnataka during the year.
Accounts dropInterestingly, the number of PMJDY accounts has come down in Andhra Pradesh in a span of one year. The rural and semi-urban centres of Andhra Pradesh witnessed a decline of 6.37 lakh accounts during the period.
Even Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram recorded a decline in the number of accounts under PMJDY.
When asked about the reasons for the decline in the number of accounts, a manager in a Mangaluru-based bank told BusinessLine that the average balance in PMJDY accounts should not cross more than ₹50,000 at any point in time and the annual turnover in the account should be below ₹1 lakh. Withdrawals should not be more than ₹10,000 a month.
That, he said, could be one of the reasons for the decline in the number of accounts.
If a PMJDY account-holder sees an increase in his income level, then he may have to opt for a basic savings bank deposit account, the manager said.
Around one-sixth of the deposits in PMJDY accounts came from Uttar Pradesh. It was closely followed by West Bengal. The two States together added more than ₹3,400 crore worth of deposits during the year.
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra contributed a significant share to the total deposits in PMJDY accounts.
Deposits more than doubled in Union Territories (UTs) Andaman, Daman and Diu, and Lakshadweep.
No State or UT was close to achieving 100 per cent mark in issuing RuPay cards to Jan Dhan account-holders. Nearly three-fourths of the PMJDY accounts in the banking system are issued with RuPay cards.
Barring Kerala, other southern States had issued RuPay cards to more than 80 per cent of its PMJDY account-holders.
Demonetisation seems to have given a definite push for opening new accounts in UTs such as Andaman and Puducherry. The number of accounts has seen an over 10-fold increase in these two UTs.
Nearly 87 per cent of the total accounts in these two UTs have been issued RuPay cards.
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