In a bid to protect the innocent farmers and rural account holders of PMJDY (the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana) from activities of money launderers and legal consequences under the Benami Property Transaction & Money Laundering laws, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has placed a ceiling limit of Rs 10,000 on monthly withdrawals from Jan Dhan bank accounts.
Owing to the immense cash crunch which has swept the economy clubbed with serpentine queues,the government has filtered their announcement of limitless withdrawals. However, another reason, they claim for putting a filter on Jan-dhan account withdrawals is also to prevent:
a) money laundering and
b) to protect farmers and rural account holders.
As per the new guideline issued today morning, the KYC (Know Your Customer) account holders might be allowed to withdraw Rs 10,000 a month from their account, while branch managers could allow further withdrawals beyond Rs 10,000 within the current applicable limits. For grant of extended limit,the bank records should be documented with proper reasons of withdrawal.
Unfortunately, the limited or non-KYC-compliant account holders might be allowed to withdraw only Rs 5,000 per month from the amount deposited in the form of banned notes after November 9 ,subject to an overall ceiling of Rs 10,000.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Jan Dhan Yojana after he assumed the office .The main objective was to provide banking access to farmers and labourers who reside in the remotest parts of the country.
According to reports, the black money holders and money launderers were taking shrewd advantage of the Jan Dhan accounts ,after the demonetisation decision was announced. The black money holders deposited their unaccounted money by pressuring naive farmers.
The Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said,”Some people are using Jan Dhan accounts to deposit black money. Up to Rs 50,000 can be deposited in Jan Dhan accounts.” The Finance Ministry had earlier set an upper limit of Rs 50,000 for deposits into these accounts.
