NEW DELHI: Slamming permission to banks to hike charges on ATM withdrawals, Congress Saturday cited a series of levies by banks coupled with price rise and “unbridled loot” to accuse Modi govt of turning banks into “collection agents”.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, “Our banks have been unfortunately made collection agents by Modi govt which has extracted at least Rs 43,500 crore due to non-maintenance of minimum balance from savings accounts & Jan Dhan accounts combined, between 2018 and 2024.”
“Other bank charges to loot citizens: inactivity fee which is Rs 100-200 per year. Bank statement issuance fee is Rs 50-100. Rs 20-25 per quarter is charged for SMS alerts. Banks charge 1-3% as loan processing fees,” he said, adding if a loan is paid on time, loan pre-closure charges are levied by banks, and NEFT & demand draft charges are an additional burden while KYC updates like signature changes also attract fees.
