Zero balance accounts come down from 26 lakh to 23.62 lakh in Telangana

Hyderabad: “Zero balance accounts” of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana appear to have become a preferred option in the Telugu states to park unaccounted money.

The number of zero balance accounts has come down from 26 lakh to 23.62 lakh in TS, indicating that about 2.5 lakh of them were suddenly flush with cash. In AP, the number of such accounts went down from 19.5 lakh to 17.38 lakh.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley, speaking in New Delhi, has promised an inquiry into the sudden influx of cash.

What has surprised officials is that the deposits in these acco-unts normally range from Rs 100 to Rs 5,000, but in recent instances, the deposits have crossed Rs 10,000 in most of the accounts.

After the announcement of demonetisation on November 8, the banks did not function on November 9 and opened on November 10. The zero balance accounts dropped drastically in just two days, on November 10 and 11, in both states after banks reopened.

Banking officials thus suspect foul play. Officials fear that if this trend is not checked, it would have an adverse effect in the coming days since the demonitisation deposits will pick up pace till December 31.

These account holders are from BPL families, who are mostly illiterates and have no awareness of banking.

The network comprising “basti leaders” in urban areas and local heads in rural areas, who have a say about “cash distribution” during elections, have now come in handy for those wanting to convert black money into white.

For every Rs 10,000 being deposited in these accounts, a commission of Rs 4,000 is being offered. “We cannot attribute every account to parking black money. The one reason for decrease in zero balance accounts may be because no one has the option to exchange currency except depositing in bank accounts. However, what raises suspicion are deposits beyond Rs 10,000, which is normally not the case among these sections,” said a banking official.

The RBI has alerted all banks to monitor transactions in such accounts stating that they are vulnerable to “frauds”.

“The responsibility has been assigned to bank managers of respective branches to monitor the transactions and report to higher-ups every week,” he added.

Officials admitted that they have received complaints against some people exploiting these accounts to park their unaccounted for cash, which needs to be inquired.

“We have alerted higher-ups, who have approached the police for help. The police is investigating,” an official said.

81,66,402 Number of Jan Dhan accounts in Telangana state, of which 34,60,954 pertain to urban areas and 47,05,448 to rural areas. These accounts together have total deposits of Rs 957.11 crore.