The Centre on Monday asked the State Bank of India to reconsider its decision of charging customers a penalty if they do not maintain a minimum balance in their savings accounts, PTI reported. The government also asked SBI and other private sector banks to reconsider the penalty imposed on cash transactions and ATM withdrawals made above a specified limit.

Last week, SBI had announced a minimum balance penalty ranging from Rs 20 to Rs 100 for different areas – metropolitan, urban, semi-urban and rural. It had done away with this rule in 2012. The bank had also announced that it was hiking the minimum account balance requirement by nearly 10 times. According to the new rules, which will be effective from April 1, the minimum balance is Rs 5,000 in the metro cities, Rs 3,000 in urban areas, Rs 2,000 in semi-urban areas and Rs 1,000 in rural areas.

The rules will apply to account holders at SBI and its five associates – State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore. These five banks will merge with SBI on April 1.

On March 1, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank hiked cash transaction fees and limited free cash deposits and withdrawals to four in a month.