By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEPT 14, 2017: THE Union Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, yesterday said that the 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 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.

Speaking further on the occasion, the Finance Minister said when the PMJDY was launched in August 2014, only 58% people had their bank accounts and 42% were outside the banking network. The Finance Minister, Mr 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% in September 2014 to less than 20% as of now. Mr Jaitley said besides it, more than 22 crore RuPay cards have also been issued to the account holders alongwith an overdraft facility of Rs. 5000/-.

Mr Jaitley 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.