SBI reduced minimum balance limit for savings account, effective on April 1

India’s largest lender bank State Bank of India reduced its charges on non-maintenance of Average Monthly Balance (AMB) in savings accounts by nearly 75 percent. These revised charges will be effective in India from 1st April 2018. The MD of Retail & Digital Banking of SBI, P. K. Gupta said, “We have decreased these charges taking into account the feedback and viewpoints of our customers. Our bank also offers its customers the option to shift from regular savings bank account to BSBD account on which no charges are levied.” The bank said that the decision of cutting AMB was taken keeping in view the feedback from various stakeholders.

In October 2017, SBI had cut service charges for those people who do not maintain their monthly average balance; they reduced the charges by a huge 20-50%. In 2017, metro and urban customers were charged Rs 40 to 100 rupees for not maintaining average balance in their savings account. The charges at rural centres and semi-urban were also changed to Rs 20-40 from Rs 25-75. At Present SBI has 41 crore savings bank accounts, out of which 16 crore accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna, BSBD, and of pensioners/minors/social security benefit holders are already exempted from charges on non- maintenance of minimum balance.

Now, The charges for non-maintenance of AMB customers in Metro cities(Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata) and Urban centres have been reduced from 50Rs per month to 15Rs per month. Likewise, for Rural centres and Semi-Urban customers, the charges have been cut from Rs 40 every month to Rs 12. GST charges will be applicable same over and above the rates specified above. Truly, This decision follows severe criticism that the bank received a huge income of Rs 1,771 crore in just eight months from clients who failed to maintain balance in their bank accounts. According to 2017 guidelines, For metro cities, you should have to keep a minimum balance of Rs 3,000 in your savings account. In urban areas Rs 2,000, while in semi-urban and rural areas–it is Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000, respectively.