The State Bank of India has reduced charges in case the customers are unable to maintain an average monthly balance in their Savings Account by up to 75 percent which will take effect from 1st April 2018. The charges for this non-maintenance of AMB for customers in metro and other urban cities have reduced from Rs. Rs. 50 per month plus goods and services tax to Rs. 15 per month plus goods and services tax. This revision in the prices is likely to benefit a total of 25 Crore bank customers. For the semi-urban as well as rural places, the charges have dropped down from Rs. 40 per month plus goods and services tax to Rs. 12 and Rs. 10 per month plus goods and services tax as was stated by the bank in its release.
The managing director of SBI, Mr. PK Gupta said that these charges have been reduced by the bank by taking into consideration the sentiments and the feedback of their customers. He also said that the bank believes in keeping its customers and their interest first as this is going to be one of their many efforts towards fulfilling the expectations of their customers. SBI is also offering the option for their customers to shift their account from the regular savings bank account to the basic savings bank deposit account wherein no charges will be incurred at all.
The customer always has the option of converting his regular savings bank account to the BSBD account without any charges in case he finds the bank facilities of the basic savings account better without witnessing any AMB. There are 41 Crore savings bank accounts with the lender out of which 16 crore accounts are under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna and the pensioners, minors, benefit holders have been exempted from the charges of the maintaining the minimum balance already.