According to a study by IIT Bombay, in five years of 2015-20, SBI has taken service charges of about Rs 300 crore from zero balance accounts. Of this, a service charge of 72 crore was collected in 2018-19 and a service charge of Rs 158 crore in 2019-20. SBI also levied service charges for online transactions exceeding four in a month.
According to a study by IIT Bombay, there has been a systematic violation of RBI regulations on BSBDA by some banks. The highest number of accounts of this type are SBI and SBI has also done a systematic breach of RBI regulations when it has charged charges at the rate of Rs 17.70 on each transaction done more than four times in a month, irrespective of digitization. . Charges on BSBDA are set according to the guidelines brought by RBI in September 2013 and according to that the account holder has the right to withdraw more than four times in a month. However, it is at the discretion of banks not to charge a fee for this.
According to RBI rules, as long as the savings deposit account is BSBDA, the bank cannot charge any service charge on it. Even the bank cannot charge on these accounts for the value added banking services that the bank offers at its discretion. The RBI considers withdrawal more than four times a month as a value-added service.
