Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday inaugurated Doorstep Banking Services by Public Sector Banks. As the term suggests, banking services can be availed at the doorstep of customers of PSBs. Doorstep banking was first prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India a few years ago, and PSBs had earlier come together to appoint a common service provider to handle this for all their customers.

Services

Only non-financial services are currently available. These include pick up of cheques, demand drafts, pay orders, etc., new cheque book requisition slip, 15G / 15H forms, IT / GST challan, issue request for standing instructions, and request for account statement.

Customer can also avail delivery of non-personalised cheque book, demand draft, pay order, delivery of term deposit receipt, acknowledgement, etc, of TDS/Form 16 certificate issuance and pre-paid instrument or gift card.

Financial services such as cash deposit and withdrawal will be made available from October 2020.

Availing services

Customers of public sector banks can avail doorstep banking services by placing a request through the customer care (18001037188, 18001213721), a web portal or a mobile app called Doorstep Banking(DSB), which is currently available on the Google Play store and will soon come to Apple’s app store.

Customers can also track their service request through these channels.

Which public sector banks offer the service

Customers of all public sector banks can avail doorstep banking services. These include State Bank of India, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Central Bank of India, Indian Bank, Indian overseas Bank, Punjab & Sind bank, UCO Bank, Bank of Baroda (which includes Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank), Canara Bank (which includes Syndicate Bank), Punjab National Bank (which includes Oriental Bank and United Bank) and Union Bank, which includes Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank).

Charges

The services shall be rendered by ‘Doorstep Banking Agents’ deployed by selected service providers at 100 centres across the country. All these services can be availed at a ‘nominal charge’.

Target audience

The finance ministry said in a statement that the services are especially for senior citizens and persons with disabilities.