Due to nationwide lockdown started from 24th March, 2020 amid of corona pandemic, Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitaraman announced waive off of charges for not maintaining Monthly Minimum Balance and for ATM transactions for 3 months, i.e. April-May-June as a part of economic relief measure. But despite this announcement, several people reported cases of deducting charges for not maintaining minimum balance and for ATM transactions during the period of three months including the small covid relief fund of workers, farmers, migrant labours, etc. which was transferred by government in their accounts. Customers were also harassed by a lot of calls and messages to remind about maintaining minimum balance in their accounts in order to avoid paying penalties. Such complaints of harassment have also been registered by many customers. Financial Accountability Network India (FAN India) through the ‘No Bank Charges’ campaign has compiled complaints and evidences from people about these wrongful and unjust deductions. We hope this will help the public to know the real story of bank charges and looking at how badly it is affecting the poor people in stressed COVID times, the Reserve Bank of India will take immediate steps to direct the banks to stop charging customers for every service and return the money to the people which they levied in the 3 months of April-May-June.
When Banking Becomes a Burden