Govt to address hidden costs on digital transactions

The government is trying to address the issue of hidden costs that banks charge on digital transactions such as at ATMs and other withdrawals, and also on various loans, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informed the Lok Sabha on Friday.

While replying to questions in the House, the minister said that the government would like to know of specific cases where banks have been charging money to take accurate action.

Jaitley said the government is doing extensive data mining to ascertain if Jan Dhan or dormant bank accounts were misused after demonetisation. He said authorities have detected 18 lakh cases after demonetisation where the income profiles of people did not match their account profile.

Preliminary information has been sought from such people and many have responded. Those who have not given details would be issued with notices as per procedure.

To another question on interest rates paid by woman-headed households being higher than the interest rates paid by male-headed households, Jaitley said women in informal trade always relied on micro-financing modes of credit where the interest rates were higher.

Therefore, the MUDRA yojana brought in not only women but also people from the SC, ST, OBC, minority and other weaker sections who could otherwise have access to those funds. And this has significantly brought the interest rates down when compared to what the private micro-finance institutions were doing, Jaitley added.