Finance Minister Arun Jaitley revised the target for opening bank accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana from 7.5 crore to 10 crore by Jan 26, 2015.The new target assumes significance as it will be equivalent of having one account per household in the country. The minister suggested to the scheme officers that Aadhaar card numbers may also be seeded with bank accounts as the same will help in directly transferring the subsidies to the bank accounts under direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme. The new target was announced by the minister at a meeting to review the scheme which was held here late Wednesday.
According to the finance ministry, the minister was informed that 7.64 crore bank accounts have already been opened under the PMJDY till Nov 18. Of the total accounts, public sector banks (PSBs) have a majority share with 6.15 crore accounts, followed by regional rural banks (RRBs) which hold 1.28 crore accounts and private banks with 0.20 crore accounts. In terms of deposits, Rs.6,015 crore have been collected up to Nov 18. However, the government said the growth in deposits has moderated after Sep 30.The finance minister also asked the PMJDY mission to take up financial literacy to promote savings and other financial services.