Big relief to Post Office account holders! Govt reduces penalty for non-maintenance of minimum balance in Saving Account

New Delhi: If you have a Savings Account in the Post Office, and you have somehow not been able to maintain the minimum balance, then this piece of news will give you the much needed respite. The government has halved the penalty for for non-maintenance of minimum balance in Saving Account.

According to a notification issued by the Finance Ministry, for not maintaining the minimum balance in the post office savings account, now a penalty of Rs 50 (with GST) will be imposed as against the previous penalty of Rs 100. This has been done as per change in the rules of the Post Office Savings Account Scheme 2019.

According to the rules, the account holder is required to maintain a minimum balance of 500 rupees in post office savings accounts. If the minimum balance falls below 500 rupees before the end of the financial year, then the account holder is fined. Till now this fine was Rs 100, which has been reduced to Rs 50.

Minimum balance required to be maintained in post office savings account is Rs 500. If a post office savings account holder fails to maintain Rs 500 minimum balance, then the post office will deduct Rs 50 as penalty from the SB account on the last working day of every financial year.

However, if your account balance becomes zero by deducting the maintenance fees from the same, then your post office account will be closed automatically. Apart from this, if the minimum balance is not kept in the post office savings account, then interest will also not be paid. The rule of minimum balance also applies to silent accounts. Those accounts were there has been no transaction for three consecutive financial years i.e neither money was deposited nor withdrawn, such accounts are called Silent accounts.

Other than non-maintenance of minimum balance, there are other types of penalties that are levied. A person can withdraw cash up to four times a month in a savings account for free. After this, a fee of 0.50 percent or Rs 25 of the total amount is charged on every withdrawal. This fee is only charged on withdrawal, there is no charge on depositing. In addition to the basic savings account, if you have a savings account or current account, you can withdraw up to Rs 25,000 every month without additional charges. After that, you will be charged a fee of 0.50 percent or a minimum of 25 rupees of the total amount withdrawn each time.

If you make a cash deposit of up to Rs 10,000 in a month, then there is no charge. After the cash deposit limit, a deposit of Rs 20 is charged on every transaction. To get a mini statement, you also have to pay a minimum charge of Rs 1 and a maximum of Rs 20.