SBI justifies penalty; says need money to bear Jan Dhan costs

Mumbai : The State Bank of India justified its move over levying penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance in accounts. The country’s largest lender said the bank needs to impose some charges to balance the burden of managing Jan Dhan accounts.

The bank even said it has not received any formal communications from the government to review the penalty issue. It also said the penalty is not applied on Jan Dhan accounts.

Last week, the country’s largest lender decided to re-introduce penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance in accounts and also revised charges on other banking services.  The new charges would be applicable from April 1. The move by the state-run banking major has faced a lot of criticism, including from the opposition parties.

As per the list of revised charges of SBI, failure to maintain Monthly Average Balance (MAB) in accounts will attract penalty of up to Rs 100 plus service tax.

In metropolitan areas, there will be a charge of Rs 100 plus service tax, if the balance falls below 75 per cent of the MAB of Rs 5,000. If the shortfall is 50 per cent or less of the MAB, then the bank will charge Rs 50 plus service tax.