PMJDY accounts no. touches 462.5 Mn. with Rs. 1.73 trillion in deposits

By Ayush SinghMonday August 29, 2022

Average deposits per Jan Dhan account rose to Rs 3,761 in August 2022 from Rs 3,398 a year ago. The average deposit per account was up over 2.9 times from Rs 1,279 in August 2015. The increase in the average deposit is an indication of increased usage of accounts and the inculcation of the saving habit among accountholders, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

Total accounts opened under PM Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) touched 462.5 million in eight years since the launch of the financial inclusion initiative, taking the deposits in these accounts to Rs 1.73 trillion as on August 10, 2022.

PMJDY accounts opened till August 2021 stood at 430.4 million. The scheme was launched on August 28, 2014, with the motive of ‘banking the unbanked’, with 179 million accounts being opened in its first year. The scheme has expanded its coverage to 67 percent rural or semi-urban areas and has 56 percent of women account holders.

However, operative accounts as a percentage of the total number of Jan Dhan accounts declined in August 2022. Out of a total of 462.5 million PMJDY accounts in August 2022, 375.7 million, or 81.2 percent were operative.

Average deposits per Jan Dhan account rose to Rs 3,761 in August 2022 from Rs 3,398 a year ago. The average deposit per account was up over 2.9 times from Rs 1,279 in August 2015. The increase in the average deposit is an indication of increased usage of accounts and the inculcation of the saving habit among accountholders, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

“The JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhar-Mobile) pipeline created through account holders’ consent-based linking of bank accounts with Aadhar and mobile numbers of the account holders, which is one of the important pillars of financial inclusion ecosystem, has enabled instant direct benefit transfer (DBT) under various government welfare schemes to the eligible beneficiaries,” said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

About 54 million PMJDY account holders receive direct benefit transfer from the government under various schemes. To ensure that the eligible beneficiaries receive their DBT on time, the Department of Financial Services has been identifying reasons for DBT failures that can be avoided, in consultation with DBT Mission, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), banks and various other ministries.

This has helped reduce the number of avoidable DBT failures as a percentage of the total failures, to 9.7 per cent in FY22 from 13.5 per cent in FY20.

Digital transactions have seen an increase with 319.4 million RuPay debit cards being issued under PMJDY, installation of point of sale (PoS) machines and introduction of UPI, taking total such transactions to 71.95 billion in FY22 from 9.78 billion in FY17, the ministry said.

IN NUMBERS (as on Aug ’22)