Violation of SBI rule: Rs 300 crore recovered from zero balance account holders

PNB also recovered Rs 9.9 crore from 39 million account holders in five years

SBI breaks RBI rules in digital transactions too: 120 million accounts opened in five years

New Delhi: State Bank of India has recovered Rs 300 crore from its zero balance account in the last five years, according to a study at IIT Bombay. Not only that, SBI was also found to have violated RBI rules in digital transactions.

Many banks, including SBI, levied service charges in the name of zero balance i.e. Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts. SBI had opened 120 million zero balance accounts in the last five years and recovered a whopping Rs 300 crore.

This report was given by IIT Bombay after studying the statistics between 2015 and 2020. SBI recovered the highest amount of Rs 158 crore from zero balance savings accounts in 2018-19.

Punjab National Bank had opened 3.9 crore accounts under Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account in five years and recovered Rs 9.9 crore through it. The RBI's rules on digital transactions were also violated.

Such as SBI 17 in digital transactions. A charge of Rs 70 was levied. This means that if more than four scheduled transactions are made from these accounts, Rs 17.70 per transaction was charged on it. The study said the rate was in no way reasonable.

An account can be opened with zero balance. This means that not a single rupee has to be deposited in the bank or a single rupee has to be kept in the account, but the bank charges a separate service charge, the report said.

Ashish Das, a professor at IIT Bombay, said that as per RBI rules, every bank opens an account with zero balance, but these banks unreasonably charged customers in the name of valued service.

The study said that in addition to the transaction, it is not appropriate to charge for online transactions. This is because the bank's direct service is not involved in the online transaction.

Professor Das also said that it would have been better if the bank had dropped the charge prudently. The study also criticized the RBI's stance. Consumers had complained to the RBI when SBI started charging in the form of UPI or Bhim-UPI, but the RBI did not take any action against the banks.