People money 'siphoned off' from a/cs under Jan Dhan Yojana: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday questioned the Center government’s scheme Pardhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, (PMJDY) and alleged that the money of people in such accounts has been “siphoned off”.

“Who is siphoning off the people’s money from the Jan Dhan account, # Loot,” he said in a Tweet on Monday.

The congress leader also posted a news report in Hindi which says, " SBI yet to refund Rs 164 crore undue fee charged from Jan Dhan account holders."

A report prepared by IIT Mumbai, said State Bank of India has not refunded Rs 164 crore collected from the account holders of Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana on account of digital payments between April, 2017 to December, 2019.

According to the report, the bank had collected a total of over Rs 254 crore for UPI and RuPay transactions from ordinary savings accounts opened under Jan Dhan Yojana during April, 2017 to September, 2020.

The report said during April 2017 to September 2020, SBI had collected over Rs 254 crore towards at least 14 crore UPI/ RuPay transactions by charging Rs 17.70 per transactions on Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account customers under (PMJDY).

The report also mentioned that the SBI did not respond to the queries asked on return of charges levied on debit transactions done by such account holders during the said period of 33 months.

Unlike any other bank in India since June 1, 2017, SBI charged Rs 17.70 for every debit transaction beyond four months, the report said. (UNI)