RTI query revels SBI has unclaimed deposits of Rs367.97 cr

Times of India: Nagpur: Wednesday, 27 May 2015.

The unclaimed deposits have become a major worry for the all the leading banks in the country and, with every year, their numbers are growing grew fast.

An RTI query has revealed that banking behemoth State Bank of India (SBI) has a staggering amount of such deposits to the tune of Rs367.96 crore from over 10 lakh accounts till March 31.

However, the SBI has refused to share information on its non-performing assets (NPA) stating that its auditing process was still underway. It also refused to divulge details about number of frauds recorded in its various branches and amount involved in them, as well as involvement of employees.

Moreover, it declined to share information on number of fraud cases registered with the police and total losses suffered by the banking major in these scams.

The reply by information officer Joy Aryakara to a query by RTI activist Abhay Kolarkar stated that this information was sensitive and therefore exempted under Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act, 2005. Ironically, SBI also didn't have the information on money spent on advertisements published so far.

Nonetheless, the SBI has informed that it had total 56,51,326 Public Provident Fund (PPF) accounts across its various branches where outstanding amount was Rs2,24,523.16 crore till the end of last fiscal. Explaining on the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it informed that about 333.14 crore accounts were opened under it where it had a balance of Rs2593.13 crore till the same date as of above.

Kolarkar had also sought information on number of employees working with the country's largest bank along with number of ATM's it had opened at various places. The bank officials replied that they operate 44,419 ATMs machines all over India, each equipped with security camera.

It however declined to inform about number of security guards it had deployed at these ATMs. The RTI activist expressed concerns over this aspect citing earlier incidents of women being robbed, stabbed and even raped inside the ATMs in absence of guards in last couple of years.

The information officer further informed that SBI had employed over 2.13 lakh employees across its various branches in the country of which 78,654 were in officer's rank and 94,129 were clerical staff. It also has 40,269 other employees, including lower cadre. It had published over 10 lakh calendars from April 1, 2014, to March 31 that accounted for Rs2.82 crore.