FM sets 100 million target for PMJDY bank accounts by 26 January

Finance minister Arun Jaitley has revised the target for opening of accounts under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) from 75 million to 100 million by 26 January 2015. This will amount to opening of one account for each household in the country.

The finance minister also asked concerned officials to ensure that Aadhar card numbers are also seeded with bank accounts as it would help in directly transferring the subsidies to the bank accounts of the desired sections of the society under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme.

The finance minister was chairing the meeting of the PMJDY mission in New Delhi on Thursday.

So far (till 18 November), 76.4 million bank accounts have been opened under the PMJDY, out of which public sector banks (PSBs) accounted for 61.5 million accounts, regional rural banks (RRBs) 12.8 million accounts and private sector banks for the remaining 2 million accounts.

The finance minister called for more active participation by the private sector banks under PMJDY.

In terms of deposits, Rs6,015 crore has been collected up to 18 November 2014. However, the growth  moderated after 30 September 2014.

Out of 76.4 million accounts opened till 18 November 2014, 57.4 million accounts are zero-balance accounts. Jaitley asked bankers to make efforts to raise the deposit level in the zero balance accounts through financial literacy programme.

The finance minister stressed the need to ensure transactions in the zero-balance accounts and also asked the mission to take up financial literacy programmes to promote savings and other financial services. He suggested dovetailing of various central and state schemes in the PMJDY accounts so as to increase transaction / deposits in these accounts.

Jaitley asked bankers to ensure availability and activation of RuPay cards issued under PMJDY. He also directed the setting up of required number of bank mitras and close monitoring of their services so as to ensure availability of banking services to the people at large.

The finance minister also discussed the possibility of integration of PMJDY with National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) through convergence with self-help groups and integration of MGNREGA scheme with DBT.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh has emerged as the most successful state in implementing the PMJDY bank account scheme by achieving more than 90 per cent of the target.

The state expects to meet the target of 100 per cent soon.