Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana

• Statistics reveal, that during the August 15-September 5 period, the total deposits in 32.61 PMJDY accounts witnessed an increase of Rs 1,266.43 crore.
• Under the revamped scheme, accidental insurance cover for new RuPay card holders has been raised from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh for new PMJDY accounts opened after  August 28, 2019.
• Under the revamped scheme, accidental insurance cover for new RuPay card holders has been raised from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh for new PMJDY accounts opened after August 28.
  Also, the existing OD limit of Rs 5,000 has been increased to Rs 10,000. Further, no conditions will be attached for OD up to Rs 2,000.
• Launched in August 2014, the first phase of PMJDY focused on opening basic bank accounts and RuPay debit card with in-built accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh. Besides, it provided Basic Banking Accounts with OD facility of Rs 5,000 after six months.
• About 53 per cent of PMJDY account holders are women, while 83 per cent of the total accounts are seeded with Aadhaar.

PMJDY is aimed at What?

Following picture depicts the current position of PMJDY.

1. It is expected that mostly vegetable sellers or similar small shop owners will use this facility for their daily businesses. This is expected to help them get more into the formal banking system, as they will be making repayments in order to stand eligible for large value loans.
2. A recent data says that only 32 lakh of PMJDY account holders had availed Rs 354 crore as overdraft till December 2017.  The reason given is that the facility was available after six months of the satisfactory conduct of the account.  Now, with relaxed guidelines, we more disbursement is expected.  The aim is to inculcate banking habit and creation of credit histories of account holders.
3. Further, it is felt that there may be a risk of such loans going bad.  Also, it is felt that during elections, some may take this as a freebie, thereby impacting their ability to take further loans
4. Earlier, the finance ministry quoted e that around 8 crore accounts are linked with some sort of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme and there is little risk of these small value ODs turning into bad loans.
5. Further it is felt that the trend in Aadhaar Enabled Payments System (AEPS) shows there will be a significant demand for micro loans. Most AEPS transactions are done via hand-held devices usually provided through bank mitras or installed at public distribution shop . The existing Overdraft limit of Rs. 5000 was also raised to Rs. 10000.