Centre adds incentives to Jan-Dhan scheme
The Centre decided to make the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana an open-ended scheme and added incentives to encourage people to open bank accounts, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday. The overdraft limit for account holders has been doubled to ~10,000.
The government on Wednesday decided to make the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) an open-ended scheme and added more incentives to encourage people to open bank accounts.
The flagship financial inclusion scheme was launched in August, 2014 for a period of four years. In view of the scheme’s “runaway success”, it has been decided to make it open-ended with more incentives, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after the Union Cabinet meeting.
Jaitley, who was briefing the media for the first time since resuming office on August 23 — after a four-month break for undergoing a kidney transplant — said the overdraft limit for account holders has now been doubled to ~10,000. The free accident insurance cover for those opening Jan Dhan accounts after August 28 too has been doubled to ~200,000. There will be no conditions attached for over-draft of up to ~2,000. Also, the upper age limit for availing the facility has been hiked to 65 from the earlier 60 years.
There are approximately 324 million Jan Dhan accounts having a total deposit balance of ~81.2 trillion. About 3 million people have so far availed the over-draft facility. "It has been decided to continue the flagship financial inclusion programme PMJDY with focus on opening account from every household to every adult," the minister said.