Govt makes PMJDY open-ended scheme

The government Wednesday decided to make the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) an open-ended scheme and added more incentives to encourage people to open bank accounts.

Briefing reporters about the cabinet decision, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said as the scheme has been a "runway success", the government has decided to make it an open-ended scheme, meaning that it will continue indefinitely.

The PMJDY was launched in August 2014 for a period of four years as a national mission for financial inclusion to ensure access of financial services like bank accounts, insurance and pensions to the masses.

To make the scheme more attractive, the government has decided to double the overdraft facility from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000, the minister said.

He further said that 32.41 crore accounts have been opened under the scheme and as much Rs 81,200 crore has been deposited in them so far.

Jaitley said 53 per cent of the PMJDY account holders are women, while 83 per cent of the accounts are seeded with Aadhaar.