In a recent study, it was revealed that the State Bank of India along with few other banks have been charging the customers for certain services. This charge is way too high and is unreasonable. According to a study by IIT-Bombay, these charges are being levied on zero-balance or Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts (BSBDA).

The study claims that this charge is not reasonable. The bank charging Rs 17.70 for debit transactions is not right and should be eliminated.

Further, it was also revealed in the study that through this method, SBI was able to make around Rs. 300 crore in the period of 5 years from 2015 to 2020. SBI ranked number 1 in the collection through the imposition of charges. After the State Bank of India, it was Punjab National Bank. The PNK ranked in the second position with a total collection of Rs 9.9 crore in the last five years.

"There had been organized violation in the RBI regulations on BSBDAs by few banks, most notably by the SBI that hosts the maximum number of BSBDAs, when it charged Rs 17.70 for every debit transaction (even via digital means) beyond four a month,” read the study.

It was further added that by the Bombay professor Ashish Das that, “This imposition of service charges resulted in undue collections to the tune of over Rs 300 crore from among nearly 12 crore BSBDA holders of SBI during the period 2015-20, of which the period 2018-19 alone saw a collection of Rs 72 crore and the period 2019-20, Rs 158 crore.”

According to the rule, an account holder will be charged beyond four transactions in a month. You will not be charged any amount until the fourth transaction but beyond that, the bank will start imposing charges.

“We assess the dereliction in SBI’s duty towards the PMJDY when the BSBDA users were unduly (and against the extant regulations) forced to part with such high charges for their day-to-day (noncash) digital debit transactions that the bank allowed in a BSBDA,” said the study.