New Delhi: One the one hand when millionaire businessmen like Vijay Malia and Neerava Modi decamped with thousands of crores in fiat money of these public sector banks, the State Bank of India (SBI) on the other hand closed as many as 41.16 lakh savings bank accounts of the general public between April and January for not maintaining the minimum monthly balance.
The information revealed by an RTI query further stated that the SBI had re-introduced the charges for non-maintenance of average monthly balance in April last year after a gap of five years. But it revised downwards the charges for not maintaining the minimum balance in October.
“Due to provisions of penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance, the bank has closed 41.16 lakh savings bank accounts between April 1, 2017 and January 31, 2018,” the bank reportedly said as a reply to an RTI query filed by Chandra Shekhar Gaud from Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh.
The reported RTI reply is stated to have been filed by SBI in the end of February. The reply was to a specific query on the number of accounts closed after introduction of charges on non-maintenance of minimum balance from April 1, 2017, notes The Tribune (TT) in its report.
As per the finance ministry data, between April and November, the bank had netted a windfall of Rs 1,771.67 crore, more than its second quarter profit, from customers for non-maintenance of minimum balance.