Page 37 - Banking Finance MAY 2017

ARTICLE

entire country with more focus on six lakh villages. It is the Y Beneficiaries of Government subsidies / schemes will get
most ambitious schemes of the Central Government. Direct Benefit Transfer in their Savings account.
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is National Mis-
Y Access to pension and insurance products at affordable
sion for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial ser-
premium.
vices, namely, Deposit Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insur-
Y If the Savings Bank account operated satisfactorily for
ance, Pension at an affordable price.
a period of 6 months, an overdraft facility will be per-
mitted upto Rs.5000/- to one account per household.
Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account can be opened with zero
balance taking care of Identity and residence proof. Bank has Y Lower interest rate on the OD facility
to issue Passbook to all accounts even if the balance is zero
and also to issue personalized RuPay debit card with PIN to all Challenges:
customers. RuPay Debit cards can be issued to blind persons,
There are some reports of malpractices with respect to Jan
minor account holders also. In case of illiterate person, only
Dhan accounts and they should be considered as threat for
biometric or Aadhar based Rupay cards are to be issued.
smooth functioning of the scheme.
Y There is sizeable quantum of probability for fraudulent
According to public opinion, though huge number of ac-
transactions in these accounts due to illiteracy and pov-
counts (17.90 crores) were opened, the accomplishment of
erty. Though banks have devised ways to address those
the scheme needs detailed evaluation. Let us understand
situations, there are limitations arising out of illiteracy
benefits and adversities of the scheme.
by ensuring biometric access to bank accounts. How-
ever, Aadhaar seeding implies that some numerical
Benefits: have still to be punched in the machine to operate an
Y Savings Bank account with no minimum balance pre- account. As all the numerals are in English, only the
scription banker or the business correspondent (BC) can punch
in the Aadhaar number.
Y Interest on amount deposited in the account
Y Accidental insurance cover of Rs.1 lakh without any Y Due to illiteracy and poor economic conditions, poor
premium, if the customer activate his RuPay Debit Card unemployed persons are recruited as third parties to
within 90 days of its issuance. Balance enquiry in zero use their deposit accounts to launder proceeds for fraud
balance account also will be treated as transaction. schemes by criminals which is known as Money mules.
Personal Accident Insurance is available to RuPay card People who serve as intermediaries for criminals and
holders from the age of 18 years to 70 years criminal organizations whether they are aware or not.
The involvement of intermediaries makes it difficult to
Y Easy Transfer of money across India through electronic
mode identity of fraudsters. In some cases the third parties
may be innocent, while others they may be having com-
plicity with criminals.
Y Messages received on mobile phones from banks are in
english and therefore the illiterate person has to seek
someone's assistance to understand and interpret the
message. In each of the above cases, the privacy of an
individual's bank balance is breached. This makes the
illiterate population vulnerable to malpractices.

Y Monitoring is another big challenge. Given the heavy
lifting by Banks, newly opened PMJDY accounts in rural
& urban area may be moved to rural and urban coop-
eratives.

BANKING FINANCE | MAY | 2017 | 37

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