Banks spent Rs 2,000 crore for opening accounts under Jan Dhan Yojana: IBA chairman

Says opening an account costs Rs 140 against estimates of Rs 80

The Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the financial inclusion programme launched in the end of August, 2014, has cost banks around Rs 2,000 crore, according to T M Bhasin, chairman of Indian Banks Assoiciation (IBA) and chairman and managing director, Indian Bank. 

Opening one account under the scheme costs around Rs 140 as against the estimate of Rs 80 per account, he added.

"All banks put together incurred a cost of around Rs 2,000 crore for PMJDY... Initially we were expecting that it will be Rs 80 for opening an account and Rs 40 for transactions," he said. 

There was a meeting two days back with the government and these details have been discussed there, he added.

"Banks have been incurring a cost of Rs 140 on each account. If we take the banking correspondents, there are around 1.50 lakh BCs across the country. Even if you calculate Rs 1,000 per month, it will cost you an amount. Then there are costs for connectivity, handheld devices for which the bank has to pay. Rupay card is costing Rs 20 each and there are costs for activation, PIN generation, posting etc," he said.

For the urban PMJDY accounts, banks will not get anything except some charges, but for rural accounts, since the BCs are involved, 1% of the amount transferred along with the NEFT and Aadhar commission would come to the banks, Bhasin added.

Around 12.4 crore acounts have been opened under the scheme, as on January 30, 2015. 

Bhasin said that around Rs 10,300 crore is lying in these accounts at present. Around Rs 52,000 crore would be distributed during the next fiscal year through these accounts. At present, around 73% accounts are lying as zero balance and activation of these accounts will happen once the subsidies starts flowing. This will make the system automatically viable, he added.