Govt committed to deepening financial inclusion: MoS Finance
New Delhi: The government is committed to deepening financial inclusion and ensuring that access to basic banking services leads to meaningful participation in the formal financial system, including access to credit, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The launch of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in August 2014 marked a significant step in banking the unbanked by facilitating the opening of basic savings bank deposit accounts, with associated features, such as RuPay debit cards and an in-built overdraft facility, he said.
As of date, over 55.90 crore accounts have been opened under the PMJDY, he said in a written reply.
As part of the saturation drive, banks across the country are engaged in a nationwide campaign for deepening financial inclusion (FI) schemes and re-KYC in bank accounts of beneficiaries.
The three-month drive, which started on July 1, would end on September 30, 2025.
As part of the campaign, banks are holding camps at Gram Panchayat (GP) level in their endeavour to provide these services at the doorstep for re-verification of KYC of existing Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts and other bank accounts, opening of PMJDY accounts for unbanked adults and enrolment under social security schemes, i.e. the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY).
The camps are also being utilised to create awareness about unclaimed deposits and to redress grievances.
The local administrative machinery is supporting the initiative, and the Department of Financial Services (DFS) and Reserve Bank of India are monitoring the progress closely.
Given the magnitude of the coverage to be achieved over the ensuing months, banks have been permitted to use the services of business correspondents in the re-KYC process.
Accordingly, BCs are also participating in the camps, along with banks present in the GPs, to facilitate customers in updating their KYC status.
During the first month of the nationwide campaign, 1.05 lakh camps have been conducted so far in as many GPs (covering one third of the total GPs in the country), with over 6 lakh PMJDY accounts opened, 7 lakh plus enrolments under PMJJBY, approximately 12 lakh enrolments under PMSBY and 3 lakh enrolments
under APY.
Re-KYC has been done in 14.22 lakh bank accounts through the camp mode. Customers may kindly make use of these camps.
Replying to another question, Chaudhary said the implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and other governance reforms has led to the removal of duplicate and fake beneficiaries, and the plugging of leakages.
As a result, he said, the government has been able to better target genuine and deserving beneficiaries.
These measures have resulted in estimated savings/benefits amounting to Rs 4,31,138.05 crore (up to FY 2023-24), he added.
