Billionaire for a day: Rs 9806 cr credited to taxi driver's Jan Dhan account

Amritsar: A taxi driver from Punjab was shell-shocked when his Jan Dhan account was credited with over Rs 98 billion on November 4.

An amount of Rs Rs 98,05,95,12,231 was credited to Balwinder Singh’s account in State Bank of Patiala (SBoP), said a Hindustan Times report. However, his joy was short-lived as the money was debited the next day.

“I had opened the account under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). My balance usually is around Rs 3,000,” he said to the newspaper.

He went to the bank several times to sort out the confusion, but instead of giving him an explanation, they just gave him a new passbook which was clear of the Rs 98 billion entry.

Lead bank manager Sandeep Garg was quoted as saying that the entry was a manual error. Instead of passing a credit entry of Rs 200, the assistant accounts manager entered the bank’s 11-digit internal Banking General Ledger account number in the amount column. The mistake was corrected the following day by reversing the entry.

Deputy commissioner Bhupinder Singh Rai confirmed the mistake. An official was quoted as saying that there was no doubt that the bank officials had acted irresponsibly on several counts. Even when he went to the bank, they did not inform him about the cause of the mistake.