Are Bank Charges Justified?

Common depositors are fed up with different charges levied upon them by banks, especially when they are facing an adverse interest rate regime. Penal charge for non-maintenance of minimum account balance (MAB) was subjected to severe criticism. Such was the gravity that it was even raised at the Lok Sabha. In its response, Shiv Pratap Shukla, MoS (finance), informed that the banks in 2017–18 on account of MAB, collected $50 billion as fine. In fact, SBI solely collected almost half of the total, amounting $24.33 billion. On the other hand, Axis, HDFC and ICICI, three major private sector banks, had collected another 30 per cent of the total amount. However, basic savings bank deposit accounts (BSBDAs) and accounts opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) are exempted from maintaining a MAB. Thus, 533 million BSBDAs, including 308 million PMJDY accounts, reported on...