New Delhi: IIT-Bombay’s study observed that the SBI’s decision to levy a charge of Rs 17.70 for every debit transaction beyond four by the BSBDA account holders cannot be considered as “reasonable.”
It highlighted that the imposition of service charges resulted in undue collections to the tune of over Rs 300 crore from among nearly 12 crore Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA) holders of SBI during the period 2015-20. India’s second-largest public sector lender Punjab National Bank, which has 3.9 crore BSBD accounts, collected Rs 9.9 crore during the same period.
“There had been a systematic breach in the RBI regulations on BSBDAs by few banks, most notably by the SBI that hosts the maximum number of BSBDAs, when it charged @ Rs 17.70 for every debit transaction (even via digital means) beyond four a month. “
This imposition of service charges resulted in undue collections to the tune of over Rs 300 crore from among nearly 12 crores BSBDA holders of SBI during the period 2015-20, of which the period 2018-19 alone saw a collection of Rs 72 crore and the period 2019-20, Rs 158 crore,” the study by IIT Bombay professor Ashish Das stated. Levying of charges on BSBDA is guided by September 2013 RBI guidelines.
