Account holders of post office savings accounts will now need to maintain a minimum balance. The new provision kicked in starting Dec. 11.
According to a notification last week on its official twitter account, India Post said that a minimum balance of Rs 500 must be maintained. If the same is not maintained, a penalty of Rs 100 with GST will be charged.
Post office savings accounts currently yield 4%. According to the latest data available in the India Post annual report, there are more than 18 crore such savings accounts with a balance of close to Rs 1 lakh crore as of March 2019.
Now maintaining minimum balance in Post Office Savings Account is mandatory.#MyPostIndiaPost pic.twitter.com/ZLDkEpIYts
Most bank accounts too mandate a minimum balance to be maintained. Exceptions to this include accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. Earlier this year, India's largest lender State Bank of India also withdrew its minimum balance requirement after some opposition.
Banks or those providing account holding services, in this case India Post, typically seek a minimum balance to ensure that the costs of servicing the account are covered.
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