Government to Launch A New Program of Financial Inclusion
in Mission Mode to Provide Households with
Facilities of Savings, Credit, Remittances, Insurance and Pension: FM
The Union Finance Minster Shri Arun Jaitley said that the
Government is going to launch a new program of Financial Inclusion in Mission
Mode which will provide households with facilities of savings, credit,
remittances, insurance and pension among others. He said that this is a marked
shift from earlier effort where only opening of account was the focus of the
financial inclusion drive. The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley was speaking after
holding a meeting with theChief Executive Officers
(CEOs) of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and Financial Institutions(FIs) here today.
The meeting was attended among others by Shri G.S. Sandhu,
Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of
India, Ms. Snehlata Shrivastva, Additional Secretary, Department of Financial
Services, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Public Sector Banks and Financial
Institutions and senior officers of Ministry of Finance.
The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley further said that this time the
Government is targeting the individual households rather than the village. He
said that there are 7.5 crore households in the country who do not have bank
account so far. The Finance Minister said that the Government is targeting that
every village should get a banking facility within a reasonable distance and
that every household should have at least one bank account within the time
frame of one year. This is a big challenge and there are several difficulties
like lack of connectivity and infrastructure facilities etc, the Minister added.
The Finance Minister
Shri Jaitley said that in our country where we have very low levels of
financial literacy, it is essential that people understand the importance of
availing financial services which will enable them to participate in the growth
story. Therefore, financial literacy will receive a special emphasis in this
new programme of financial inclusion, the Minister added.
The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley said that technology has made
rapid strides in recent times and, therefore, the Government must use
technology, especially mobile based services in a big way to achieve the
desired results. The Government has integrated provisions of access to banking
facilities, account opening, financial literacy, credit availment, micro
insurance and pension, the Minister added.
The Financial Inclusion Mission has two phases starting from 15thAugust this year. The first phase will get over by
14thAugust, 2015 and the second Phase by 14thAugust, 2018. Most of the activities will be done
in Phase – I and insurance and pension would be covered in Phase – II.
The Finance Minister
Shri Jaitley added that the previous efforts did not involve the State
Government and District administration. He said that this time the State
Governments have been requested to achieve this ambitious task. There would be
State level and District level Committees to monitor the progress under the
plan, the Minister stated.
The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley said that there was no pull
factor in the earlier campaign where people could demand access of banking
facilities in their villages. He added that under the Mission
The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley stated that in the past, the
Know Your Customer (KYC) process was very cumbersome. This has now been eased
and the e-KYC facility has been introduced in the banks.
Comparison
between Old Financial Inclusion Programme and New Programme.
|
Old Program
|
New Program
|
|
Village based approach for villages where population
greater than 2000 (Limited Geography)
|
Households in all villages
|
|
Only Rural
|
Both Rural and Urban
|
|
|
Fixed Point BC in each SSA comprising of 3 to 4 villages.
This visit other villages in the SSA on fixed days.
|
|
Focus on opening of Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts
(BSBDA)
|
Focus on Financial Literacy, opening of BSBDA Account,
Convergence with other subsidy schemes& Micro Insurance/Pension, RuPay
Debit Card, USSD Scheme, Kisan Credit Card
|
|
Monitoring by banks
|
Monitoring Mechanism at Centre, State, District level.
Active participation of state and district emphasized.
|
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Operation of Accounts offline; separate server.
|
Accounts on line ‘on CBS of banks. Provision of RuPay Card
to each account holder giving him freedom to operate anywhere
|
Besides above, the following decisions were also
taken in today’s meeting of the CEOs of Public Sector Banks and Financial
Institutions which was chaired by the Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley.
- New emphasis on fixed point Business Correspondents (BCs) like :
o
Common Service Centres (CSCs)
o
Gramin Dak sevaks
o
PDS shops
o
NBFCs
- Banks to explore the possibilities of installing ATMs in rural areas under RBI subsidy scheme
- Convergence with the efforts of UIDAI to enroll beneficiaries for Aadhar number during account opening
- Convergence with the efforts of other programmes of SHGs / JLGs
- e-KYC to be used for opening of accounts in the camps where Aadhaar number is available
- Financial literacy material would be standardized by IBA
- Logo / tagline of
the plan to be used on all correspondence material for one year
- Overdraft
facilities would be after satisfactory operation
- Grievance redressal
cell at State level by State Level Banker’s Committee(SLBC)
- In order to ensure
viability of BCs Banks would start a
financing scheme
- Banks would take
Micro ATMs which are Aadhar enabled
- All Pass book based
KCCs to be enabled on Rupay card
- Mobile wallet cash
points also to be used as BCs
- Monitoring mechanism
strengthened.
- State Governments
requested to depute an officer to SLBC for monitoring purpose