An MOU was signed between the Indian Railways and State Bank of India (SBI) for Railway Salary Package account holders to give insurance protection of Rs one Crore in the event of accidental death (on duty and also off duty) without paying any premium and by just having a salary account in SBI. At present, around seven lakhs accounts of railway employees are with SBI.
During the agreement event, a symbolic cheque was handed by Chairman SBI to the Railway Board Chairman and CEO Satish Kumar and SBI CEO C S Setty.
According to a Press release, all the benefits under the Railway Salary Package will be in addition to other benefits through other Government schemes/insurance schemes/Policies to which the Railway employee is part of. Some of the add-on features of the beneficiaries will be access to personal, home, car, and education loans at attractive interest rates, with 50 percent to 100 percent off on processing fees. “Up to 50 percent discount on annual locker rental charges for salary account holder and his four family members; Zero balance requirement and free unlimited ATM transactions, including across any bank’s ATM network, auto? Sweep / eMulti Option Deposit facility; automatically move surplus funds to multi-option deposits for better interest; Zero fee drafts, multicity cheques, SMS alerts, and zero charges on NEFT/RTGS; airport lounge access – domestic and International up to three visits a quarter on debit cards are some of the additional features,” said a statement by Railways.
This proposed arrangement is purely voluntary in nature for all SBI account holders (Railway Employees) and also Railway administration will continue to enter into similar/more attractive schemes with the other banks, added the statement. At present, railway employees are covered under CGEGIS under which insurance is covered up to `30 thousand for Group C, `60 thousand for Group B and `1.20 lacs for Group A employees in the event of death during service. The maximum workforce/frontline Railway Servicemen belong to the Group C category. The insurance coverage `30 thousand is considered hardly sufficient to give financial support to the surviving dependents.