SBI to penalise non maintenance of Monthly Average Balance in accounts

State Bank of India has decided to reintroduce penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance in accounts from 1st of next month. Failing to maintain monthly average balance in accounts will attract penalty up to 100 rupees plus service tax.

The public sector bank has also revised its charges on other services, including ATMs. The bank had suspended levying charges on breach of minimum balance requirements in 2012 to acquire new customers. The country's largest bank will now permit savings bank account holders to free of charge cash deposit only three times a month and levy 50 plus service tax on every transaction beyond that. In case of current account, the levy could go as high as twenty thousand rupees.

In metropolitan areas, there will be a charge of 100 rupees plus service tax, if the balance falls below 75 per



cent of the minimum account balance of 5,000 rupees. If the shortfall is 50 per cent or less of the balance, then the bank will charge 50 rupees and service tax. The charges and average balance will vary according to the location of bank. It is minimum in case of rural branches and it is up to 50 rupees plus service tax if balance falls below 1000 rupees.

The Reserve Bank has permitted banks to levy charges for breaching minimum balance limit. Withdrawal of cash from ATMs will also attract a charge up to 20 rupees if the number of transactions exceeds three from other bank's ATMs in a month and 10 rupees for more than five withdrawals from SBI ATMs. It will also charge 15 rupees for SMS alerts per quarter from debit card holders. However, there will be no charge for UPI and USSD transactions up to one thousand rupees.