In an effort to promote financial inclusion, the nations prime public sector lender SBI has eased the minimum balance requirements for its account holders.

The move, which was notified today vide a press release by State Bank of India, mentioned waiving off the minimum balance requirement for nearly 44 crore saving accounts.  The press release said that the customers holding savings accounts with SBI could avail the "zero" balance facility irrespective of the type of saving account. No penalty will be imposed on customers keeping a "zero balance" in their savings accounts.

Till date, the average monthly minimum balance clause attracted a penalty for those not complying with it. Minimum average monthly balance requirements for metro branch account holders was Rs 3,000; for urban and semi-urban account holders it was Rs 2,000 and for rural branch account holders it was Rs 1,000. The penalty ranged from Rs.5  - Rs.15 as per a calculation table.

With the Average Minimum Balance being scrapped, customers can maintain their accounts with a zero balance without attracting any penalty.

SBI has also scrapped the SMS charges that were levied on a quarterly basis and has also rationalised the interest rate on savings accounts to a flat 3% irrespective of the balance in the accounts.