Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Modi government, accusing it of turning banks into “collection agents” following the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to impose higher charges on ATM cash withdrawals.
Taking to his social media handle X, Kharge criticised the move, calling it an example of the BJP-led government’s alleged economic exploitation.
“Painful Price Rise + Unbridled Loot = BJP’s Mantra for Extortion!” he wrote.
The Veteran Congress leader claimed that the government has extracted at least Rs 43,500 crore due to non-maintenance of Minimum Balance from Savings Accounts & Jan Dhan Accounts combined, between 2018 and 2024.
He also highlighted various “charges imposed by banks”, such as inactivity fees, charges for issuing bank statements, SMS alert fees, loan processing fees, and pre-closure charges, stating that these were to “Loot Citizen.
“Earlier, the Union Government used to provide the data of amounts collected by these charges in the Parliament, but now this practice has also been discontinued by saying, citing that ‘RBI doesn’t maintain such data,'” Kharge alleged.
The criticism comes a day after the RBI announced that customers will be eligible for only five free transactions (including financial and non-financial) per month from their own bank ATMs. Beyond this limit, a fee of up to Rs 23 per transaction will be levied, starting May.
