Big news! State Bank of India charging money on digital transactions, card swipes from SBI account holders

A study by IIT-Bombay has revealed State Bank of India and several other banks in the country have been imposing excessive charges on certain services wbich are provided to those with zero-balance or Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts (BSBDA). According to the study, the decision by SBI, which is country's largest public lender, to levy a charge of Rs 17.70 for every debit transaction beyond four by the BSBDA account holders is not "reasonable."

The study revealed that SBI collected over Rs 300 crore by imposition of service charges during the period 2015-20. Punjab National Bank, which has 3.9 crore BSBD accounts, came at second place with a collection of Rs 9.9 crore during the same period.

"There had been 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 crore 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.

It is to be noted that the levying of charges on BSBDA is as per the RBI guidelines released in September 2013. As per the direction these accounts holders are ‘allowed more than four withdrawals’ in a month, at the discretion of the bank provided it does not charge for the same.

"While defining the features of a BSBDA, the regulatory requirements made it amply clear that in addition to mandatory free banking services (that included four withdrawals per month), as long as the savings deposit account is a BSBDA, banks cannot impose any charge even for value-added banking services that a bank may like to offer at their discretion," the study said.

The study noted that according to RBI a withdrawal, beyond four a month, a value-added service.

"We assess the dereliction in SBI’s duty towards the PMJDY when the BSBDA users were unduly (and against the extant regulations) forced to part with such high charges for their day-to-day (noncash) digital debit transactions that the bank allowed in a BSBDA," it said.