SBI collects Rs 300 Crore from Zero Balance Accounts for Certain Services in five years.

Banks are charging exorbitant fees for some services from zero balance accounts of poor people. This is revealed by a study by IIT-Bombay. It states that the country's largest bank, SBI is also recovering unfair charges from the poor.

Whether it is a government bank (PSU bank) or private bank in the country, they are not behind in charging service charges. They are also recovering exorbitant fees for some services from the Zero Balance Account of poor people. A study by IIT-Bombay has revealed that the country's largest bank, SBI (State Bank of India) is also recovering unfair charges from the poor.

SBI is also involved in this recovery in the study of IIT-Mumbai, it is said that SBI (SBI) has decided to impose a fee of Rs 17.70 on every withdrawal transaction after four on the Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA) account holders. This cannot be considered appropriate. The report said that during the year 2015-20, SBI has raised more than Rs 300 crore by imposing service charges on 12 crore BSBD account holders. The number of BSBD accounts of Punjab National Bank (PNB), the country's second largest government bank, is 3.9 crore. The bank has collected Rs 9.9 crore as the fee from these account holders during this period.

Violation of rules is happening in the report, that some banks on BSBD accounts are being systematically violated by RBI regulations. SBI's name comes first among them. SBI is charging Rs 17.70 on every transaction after one month four withdrawal transactions. Even in digital withdrawals, SBI is making this recovery.

IIT-Bombay professor Ashish Das said, "Through this service fee, SBI has raised Rs 300 crore from about 12 crore BSBD account holders. Of this, 72 crores alone were raised in 2018-19 alone. After this, Rs 158 crore was raised in 2019-20. It is noteworthy that the fee is being levied on the BSBD account based on the Reserve Bank's September 2013 guidelines. It states that these account holders will have the right to withdraw more than four times in a month. This will be at the discretion of the bank, provided the bank does not charge the fee for it.

Aspects of the BSBD account have also been defined in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines. It states that as per the regulatory requirements, it is clarified that as long as the savings deposit account is BSBDA, the bank cannot be levied any service charge or any value for value added services offered by the bank on a discretionary basis. It added that the Reserve Bank considers more than four withdrawals a month as value-added service.