How Parameswaran from Thiruvananthapuram helped end minimum balance charges

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Parameswaran Krishna Iyer of Valiyasala in Thiruvananthapuram feels satisfied that his complaint has brought relief to crores of bank customers across the country.

The recommendation by the Parliamentary Petitions Committee that banks should not impose penalties for not maintaining minimum balance in savings bank accounts came following a complaint submitted by him to the Lok Sabha Speaker. Parameswaran Krishna Iyer told Kerala Kaumudi that he decided to file the complaint after noticing the difficulties faced by employees of his Bengaluru-based company, Bamboopecker.

Most of his workers come from tribal areas in Bihar, Maharashtra and Assam. He began looking into the issue when he found that the employees were not receiving their full salary credited online. The reason was that they could not maintain the required minimum balance in their bank accounts due to a lack of money. As a result, banks were imposing penalties on them. Some banks were charging penalties of up to Rs 2000, which was even higher than the interest paid on deposits.

In 2022, Parameswaran submitted a complaint to the Reserve Bank of India. However, he was informed that since it was a policy decision of the banks, the RBI could not intervene. He then approached the Lok Sabha Speaker with a complaint.

On April 18, 2024, he sent a registered letter detailing the penalties collected by banks over three years. After seeing no action for six months, he filed a complaint with the Chief Justice of India. In February 2025, he received a reply stating that the matter could be considered as a Public Interest Litigation. He was not aware of the progress of his complaint to the Speaker until he recently learned about the committee’s recommendation.

Following the committee’s direction and a letter from the Finance Ministry, six public sector banks have now stopped collecting the minimum balance penalty. State Bank of India had already discontinued the practice earlier.

Parameswaran Krishna Iyer is also a Technical Member of the National Bamboo Mission.