THE FINANCE MINISTER (SHRI ARUN JAITLEY)
Statement referred to in reply to parts (a) to (e) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 77 (17th Position) for 27th February 2015 by Dr. Ravindra Kumar Ray and Shri R. Dhruva Narayana regarding “Banking Facilities”.
(a) to (b) As per Census 2011, 58.7 % households were availing banking facilities in the country. In order to extend the banking network in unbanked areas, general permission has been granted by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to domestic Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) (other than Regional Rural Banks) to open branches (i) in Tier 2 to Tier 6 centres (with population upto 99,999) and (ii) in rural, semi-urban and urban centres of the North-Eastern States and Sikkim subject to reporting. RBI has advised banks that while preparing their Annual Branch Expansion Plan (ABEP), the banks should allocate at least 25 percent of the total number of branches proposed to be opened during a year in unbanked rural (Tier 5 and Tier 6) centres.
(c) to (e) To improve banking facilities and to cover all households with the facility of at least one bank account per household Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) was launched on 28th August 2014 as a National Mission under which banks were given target to carry out surveys in allocated Sub Service Areas (SSAs) and Wards and to open accounts of all uncovered households by 26.01.2015.
PMJDY has been successful in achieving its targets. As on 28.01.2015, 12.31 crore accounts have been opened out of which 7.37 crore accounts are in rural areas and 4.94 crore in urban areas. Deposits of Rs.10217.43 crore have been mobilized. 10.85 crore RuPay Debit cards have been issued. 99.98 % of surveyed households have now got the facility of at least one bank account . No. of State/ UT-wise rural accounts opened in the Yojana as on 28.01.2015 is given in Annexure – 1.
The number of functioning branches of SCBs in rural and urban areas State-wise for the last three years and current year is enclosed in Annexure-2.
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