The largest public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) is re-instating its policy of charging customers for not maintaining the monthly average balance (MAB) in their savings bank account, according to a report in the Business Standard.

The penalty will be applicable from April 1.



SBI had done away with the policy in July 2012 to attract more customers and push customers towards low-cost deposits.

The bank will use the charge to cover operational costs for maintaining saving accounts. The cost of maintain savings accounts, including the new ones opened post demonetisation and the zero-balance accounts require high cost for operations and systems.

SBI currently has about 250 million savings account, as per the report.

According to the bank, customers will have to maintain a monthly average balance of Rs 5,000 in savings accounts in metropolitan area. For rural areas, the MAB is Rs 1000 and charges for not maintaining this amount is lower than that in urban areas.

In metropolitan areas, if the shortfall in account is 50 percent or less of the MAB, then the bank will charge Rs 50 plus service tax. For amount below 50-75 percent, charge will be Rs 75 plus service tax and for above 75 percent, the penalty will be Rs 100 plus service tax.