Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
In an attempt to encourage more people to open bank accounts, the government on Wednesday decided to make the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) an open-ended scheme and has added more incentives to the scheme. Following a crucial cabinet meeting, 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 Jan Dhan Yojana scheme 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. The government has now decided to make the scheme more attractive by doubling 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.
The free accident insurance cover for those opening Jan Dhan accounts after August 28 too has been doubled to Rs 2 lakh.
There will be no conditions attached for over-draft of up to Rs 2,000. Also, the upper age limit for availing the facility has been hiked to 65 from the earlier 60 years.
About 30 lakh people have so far availed the overdraft facility.
“It has been decided to continue the flagship financial inclusion programme PMJDY with focus on opening an account from every household to every adult,” the minister said.
The pipeline of Jandhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) will continue to provide the necessary backbone for coverage of these activities and thereby accelerating the pace of digitised financially included and insured society, an official release said.
What is PMJDY
(PMJDY) is National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services like Banking/ Savings & Deposit Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension in an affordable manner.
An account can be opened in any bank branch or Business Correspondent (Bank Mitr) outlet. Accounts opened under PMJDY are being opened with Zero balance. However, if the account holder wishes to get the chequebook, he/she will have to fulfil minimum balance criteria.
Benefits of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
- Interest on deposit.
- Accidental insurance cover of Rs. 2.00 lac
- No minimum balance required.
- The scheme provides life cover of Rs. 30,000/- payable on death of the beneficiary, subject to fulfilment of the eligibility condition.
- Easy Transfer of money across India
- Beneficiaries of Government Schemes will get Direct Benefit Transfer in these accounts.
- After the satisfactory operation of the account for 6 months, an overdraft facility will be permitted
- Access to Pension, insurance products.
- The Claim under Personal Accidental Insurance under PMJDY shall be payable if the Rupay Cardholder have performed minimum one successful financial or non-financial customer induced transaction at any Bank Branch, Bank Mitra, ATM, POS, E-COM etc. Channel both Intra and Inter-bank i.e. on-us (Bank Customer/rupay card holder transacting at same Bank channels) and off-us (Bank Customer/Rupay card holder transacting at other Bank Channels) within 90 days prior to the date of the accident including accident date will be included as eligible transactions under the Rupay Insurance Program 2016-2017.
Life insurance under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
Under the PMJDY scheme, the account holders will be given worth Rs.30000 insurance coverage if they comply with the certain specification of the scheme which includes opening an account by January 26, 2015 and having an accidental insurance coverage of over Rs. 200000.
Loan benefits under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
The account holder can take loan benefit of up to Rs.5000 from the bank after six months of opening the account. Though the amount might seem insignificant for many but we have to realize the scheme is directed mostly towards people below the poverty line and who are struggling desperately to sustain their everyday living. The loan benefit can be a scintilla of hope for those people who could utilize the loan amount and invest it in a more profitable outcome, particularly in farming or other agricultural prospects.
Document required to open an account under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
An account can be opened by presenting an officially valid document.
- Passport,
- Driving licence,
- Permanent Account Number (PAN) Card,
- Voter’s Identity Card issued by Election Commission of India,
- Job card issued by NREGA duly signed by an officer of the State Government,
- The letter issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India containing details of name, address and Aadhaar number, or
- Any other document as notified by the Central Government in consultation with the Regulator:
Provided that where simplified measures are applied for verifying the identity of the clients the following documents shall be deemed to be officially valid documents:—- identity card with applicant’s Photograph issued by Central/State Government Departments, Statutory/Regulatory Authorities, Public Sector Undertakings, Scheduled Commercial Banks, and Public Financial Institutions;
- the letter issued by a Gazetted officer, with a duly attested photograph of the person.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI), had further clarified that those persons who do not have any of the ‘officially valid documents’ can open “Small Accounts” with banks. A “Small Account” can be opened on the basis of a self-attested photograph and putting his/her signatures or thumbprint in the presence of officials of the bank. Such accounts have limitations regarding the aggregate credits (not more than Rupees one lakh in a year), aggregate withdrawals (nor more than Rupees ten thousand in a month) and balance in the accounts (not more than Rupees fifty thousand at any point of time). These accounts would be valid normally for a period of twelve months. Thereafter, such accounts would be allowed to continue for a further period of twelve more months, if the account-holder provides a document showing that he/she has applied for any of the Officially Valid Document, within 12 months of opening the small account.
