Every citizen will have bank account in next 2 years

In the next two years and each and every citizen of the country will have a bank account with an easy access to banks, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said.

“We have equipped each of our post offices with ATMs and micro ATMs so that it is easy to access bank accounts. We are increasing and expanding the number of bank mitras so that their business correspondents can service our citizens. Then of course, through the payment banks, we are making it possible to be able to do all digital transactions through mobile phones,” he said in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Improved outcome

He was replying to a question on Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). He said that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana implementation has helped improved the outcome of DBT.

Sinha also said that in coming days the Centre plans to use DBT for fertilizer subsidy in order to reduce leakage. He said this year the government was doing trials for its implementation. At present DBT platform is used for MNREGA payments, LPG subsidy and scholarship payments.

The minister said efforts are on to computerise all of the fair price shops and provide biometric authentication so that leakages are curtailed.