In order to give a push to Jan Dhan scheme, the government is working out an attractive incentive scheme to encourage bankers to expeditiously meet account opening target.
"The Finance Ministry is preparing incentive scheme for bankers. It will be unveiled soon," sources said.
The government has already fixed minimum monthly renumeration of Rs 5,000 to business correspondents who provide the last link between the account holders and the bank.
The first phase of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is scheduled to be completed by January 26, 2015, as against original plan of August 15, 2015.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched this ambitious scheme of financial inclusion on August 28 and announced that 7.5 crore bank accounts would be opened during the first phase.
The main features of the PMJDY scheme include Rs 5,000 overdraft facility for Aadhar-linked accounts, RuPay Debit Card with inbuilt Rs 1 lakh accident insurance cover.
Besides, account holders under the scheme will get life insurance cover of Rs 30,000.
Yesterday, the Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister, took stock of the Jan Dhan Yojana, under which banks have opened 3.02 crore accounts and mobilised about Rs 1,500 crore.
As of September 8, 2014, 3.02 crore accounts have been opened, of which 1.89 crore are in rural areas and 1.13 crore are in urban areas.
Banks have collected deposits of Rs 1,496.51 crore under the scheme so far, which works out to Rs 495 per account.
The new scheme, sources said, is a significant improvement over the UPA's financial inclusion programme.
The earlier scheme had no focus on households and no emphasis was given on urban financial inclusion, according to some experts. Besides, they maintained that there was a cumbersome Know Your Customer formality, restricting account opening.
Other deficiencies cited included lack of credit disbursement and 47 per cent of business correspondents being untraceable, resulting in inactive accounts.
The new scheme, sources said, has tried to address all the possible deficiencies and its monitoring would be done at state and district levels.
The 'mission mode' approach has been envisaged with the Finance Minister as head of the mission.
