Present govt brings policy of financial inclusion to centre stage: FM

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Saurabh Gupta | 14 Sep, 2017
The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the present Government brought the policy of financial inclusion to the centre stage and launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) Scheme on a massive scale in August 2014.

He said that the Government has tried to exploit the full potential of financial inclusion with the help of banks. The Finance Minister, Jaitley further said that this is one area where Public Sector Banks (PSBs) did better than others.

The Finance Minister was delivering the Key Note Address at the Conclave on Finance Inclusion organized by United Nations (UN) in India in the national capital on Wednesday.

Speaking further on the occasion, Jaitley said when the PMJDY was launched in August 2014, only 58 percent people had their bank accounts and 42 percent were outside the banking network.

Jaitley said that now the number of total bank accounts opened under PMJDY is more than 30 crore. He said that the number of zero balance accounts under PMJDY has declined from 76.81 percent in September 2014 to less than 20 percent as of now. He said besides it, more than 22 crore RuPay cards have also been issued to the account holders alongwith an overdraft facility of Rs. 5000/-.

The Finance Minister said that in addition to Financial Inclusion, the present Government has taken steps to provide security to the poor via life insurance under the Pradhan Mantra Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and accident insurance through Pradhan Mantra Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY). As on 7th August, 2017, total enrollment was 3.46 crore under the PMJJBY and 10.96 crore under PMSBY. In both schemes, close to 40 percent of the enrollees are women, the Minister added.

Speaking on the results of demonetization, Jaitley said that it has helped in reducing the volume of cash transactions and increase in digitisation, widening of the tax base and more formalization of the economy among others.

He said that post demonetization, there is emphasis to reduce overall quantum of cash in the economy.