Bengaluru: In a recently published report, the Lok Sabha petitions committee recommended that banks across the country not to levy penalties for non-maintenance of minimum balance. With several nationalised banks already allowing zero-balance savings accounts, a Bengalurean was at the forefront of the fight for the cause.Parameshwaran Krishna Iyer, 47, founder of the city-based firm Bamboopecker, noticed a crisis his employees dealt with every month: A considerable amount would be deducted from their salaries.Whenever his employees got their salaries, they would send part of the money back home and withdraw the rest for their expenses. Because of this, little would be left in their accounts and they could not maintain the minimum balance, he explained.In one instance, an employee sought travel expenses to come back to Bengaluru from his leave. “We sent him money, and he was only able to use half of it. His account had a negative balance,” Parameshwaran recalled.Convinced that this was not a fair practice, the entrepreneur, in 2024, decided to approach the Reserve Bank of India, which did not work out. After days of pondering and research, Parameshwaran learnt that addressing the issue in Parliament could be the most effective solution. On Aug 18 of that year, he wrote a petition to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, highlighting the concerns along with recommendations and suggestions.In his three-page letter, he asked why banks allowed customers to withdraw below the minimum balance and then collected a penalty. If banks wanted their customers to maintain a minimum balance, they should not let them withdraw below the threshold, Parameshwaran said.As months went by, the Kerala-born man did not receive any response, which made him write to the then Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud. However, behind the scenes, work already began by March 2025, with the finance committee issuing an official memorandum on the matter. By June, responses were sought from the department of financial services on the reason for the levy of such penalties, attaching his petition.According to the data revealed by the department, Rs 122 crore was collected by public sector banks in penalties within Karnataka for the financial year 2024-25 alone. Among private banks, HDFC collected the highest such charges at Rs 1,112 crore at the national level in a single financial year.His pursuit and follow-ups already started to show positive signs, with many public sector banks like Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, State Bank of India and Canara Bank starting to permit zero-balance savings accounts. In Dec last year, the Lok Sabha petitions committee, chaired by MP Chandra Prakash Joshi, came up with 47 recommendations, with several of them replicating those initially addressed by Parameshwaran.“For individuals or small entrepreneurs whose business income is low, seasonal, or inconsistent, maintaining such balances may be challenging,” the committee noted in its recommendation, while adding that scrapping of penalties was in the best interest of all stakeholders.While the fight is yet to turn into a policy, the CV Raman Nagar feels that a common man’s pursuit prompted action.
