New Jan Dhan overdraft guidelines to give Rs 32,000 crore booster to economy

The government’s recent guidelines in Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) especially the overdraft modifications, are seen as a positive move for Indian economy. Recently, government stated that there will be no conditions attached with for overdraft up to Rs 2,000 in Jan Dhan Account. This move is expected to give Rs 32,000 crore booster to the economy, a Finance Ministry official told Economic Times.

Further the government also raised its overdraft limit to Rs 10,000 from Rs 5,000. Not only this, age limit for availing OD facility to be revised from 18-60 years to 18-65 years.

The official reportedly said, “We expect 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.”

Currently, there are approx 32.41 crore Jan Dhan accounts that have been opened with more than Rs 81,200 crore of deposit balance.

53% women Jan Dhan account holders and 59% Jan Dhan accounts are in rural and semi urban areas. More than 83% operative Jan Dhan accounts (except states of Assam, Meghalaya, J&K) are Aadhaar seeded, with issuance of approx 24.4 crore RuPay cards to these account holders. 

More than 7.5 crore Jan Dhan accounts receiving Direct Benefit Transfer. However, for this the finance ministry reportedly said, there is little risk of these small value ODs turning into bad loans.