Jan Dhan Accounts Under Scrutiny: Rs 21,000 Crore Deposited Post Demonetisation

Bank accounts opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana have seen a massive jump in their deposits. According to the government sources, these accounts have witnessed deposits worth over Rs 21,000 crore since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation on 8 November. This roughly translates to Rs 1,000 per account. (There are around 25 crore Jan Dhan accounts)

Sources tell media that the government is monitoring the sudden spike in the deposits in these accounts. According to News 18, most of these deposits have been made in Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal followed by Karnataka, which is currently under the Congress administration.

It is being implied that black money holders are using poor people’s Jan Dhan accounts to launder their dirty money. Prime Minister had cautioned exactly against such developments during a rally in Agra couple of days back. Finance Ministry had warned against the same five days ago.

The Reserve Bank Of India has already told the banks to keep an eye on sudden increase in deposits in these accounts where upper limit for deposits is Rs 1 lakh for those who adhere to full KYC norms and Rs 50,000 for those who don’t. If the government finds that Jan Dhan accounts have swelled in a particular area, that may be hint enough for it to dig deeper and start investigation.

As of 9 November, there were Rs 45,636 crore in Jan Dhan accounts. Here is the official data.