SBI scraps Rs 500 fee plus GST levy on closure of savings account

Mumbai: Weeks after the State Bank of India, SBI, revised minimum balance requirement rules, the largest lender in country has changed its norms governing closure of savings bank accounts. The bank has announced there will be no charge for closing a savings bank account and there will be no 18 per cent GST levy either.

Earlier, closing of a savings bank account cost the customer Rs 500 plus an 18 per cent GST levy. Of late, the SBI had taken a slew of measures to make banking more customer friendly particularly in the backdrop of merger of the bank with its sister banking companies.

However, those who close a bank account after 14 days and up to 1 year of opening it will have to pay the account closing fee and a GST levy, the bank said. 

In the aftermath of demonetisation, when the bank was overburdened with handling large amount of cash as large number of bundles of notes came pouring in, the bank had gone for an increase in minimum balance requirement fee. The bank had set Rs 5,000, Rs 3,000, Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000 as minimum balance limit for a metro, urban, semi-urban and rural category SBI account, respectively. Following are the new rates for closing an account. Take a look:

In case of an account belonging to a dies customer who has dies, there will be no account closing charges for final settlement of such accounts. At present these accounts also attract a closing fee of Rs 500 plus a GST levy of 18 per cent. All the new rules for closing an account will come into effect from October 1.