-Times of India-By Sri chethan Kumar
BANGALORE: Indian economy is battling inflation. The value of rupee had deteriorated against the dollar to an all-time low last year. Many Indians do not have shelter, many more have no food. But, at least Rs 3,652,64,72,711 lies unclaimed in our commercial banks, and the figure is only set to go up.
A senior RBI source told TOI: "The total amount of unclaimed deposits (more than 10 years old) lying with all Scheduled Commercial banks (SCBs), as per Form 9 submitted by them, at the end of December 31, 2012, is Rs 3652.64 crore. The same for 10 years ending 2013 is being collated."
Compared to this the total amount for 10 years ending 2011 was around Rs 2,481.40 crore in 1,12,49,844 banks accounts, while the same for 10 years ending 2010 stood at around Rs. 1,723.24 crores in 1,03,45,857 accounts.
The said amount is distributed in a total of 1.33 crore unclaimed accounts. Sources said that guidelines prevent banks and even the RBI from sharing details of the account holders.
The source added that as per Section 26 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, "every banking company shall, within thirty days after the close of each calendar year, submit a return in the prescribed form and manner to RBI of all accounts in India which have not been operated upon for ten years."
Documents with TOI show that of the Rs 3652.64 crore, Rs 714,08,01,113 is with the SBI and five of its associate banks: State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore.
Other 20 nationalised banks account for Rs 25,22,59,87,807, while Rs 749799007 lies with foreign banks and Rs 340,98,84,784 is with other private banks.
Analysing the types of accounts that hold the maximum amount, documents show that savings accounts top the list with 1.09 crore accounts holding Rs 2473.97 crore. (See table)
While the said lies unutilised at the moment, RBI has already initiated a process to establish a Depositor Education and Awareness Fund (DEAF), under the provisions of the Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012.
"DEAF will be credited with the amount to the credit of any account in India with a banking company which has not been operated upon for a period of ten years or any deposit or any amount remaining unclaimed for more than ten years within a period of three months from the expiry of the said period of ten years," Ajit Prasad, Assistant General Manager, RBI said in a recent circular.
The circular added that DEAF shall be utilised for promotion of depositors' interests and for such other purposes which may be necessary for the promotion of depositors' interests as may be specified by RBI. The RBI has sought clarifications from the public to introduce this earlier this year, and no formal decision has been taken as yet.
However, the provisions of Section 26A do not prevent a depositor or any other claimant from claiming his deposit or unclaimed amount or operating his account or deposit account after the expiry of the period of ten years and the banking company shall be liable to repay the deposit or amount and claim refund of such amount from DEAF.
| Type of account | Unclaimed accounts | Unclaimed amount* |
| Current Account | 4,42,445 | 275,18,64,923 |
| Savings Account | 1,09,38,719 | 2473,97,54,925 |
| Fixed Deposit | 8,42,426 | 482,32,18,826 |
| Other Deposit | 11,57,262 | 386,62,01,087 |
| Total | 1,33,80,852 | 3618,10,39,761 |
No comments:
Post a Comment