PU wins case against UCO Bank over interest money

Panjab University has won a complaint that was filed with the UT District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum on Tuesday against UCO Bank for interest money of Rs 20 crore that was deposited with them as STDRs.

The registrar, on behalf of the university, stated that Rs 50 crore was deposited as STDRs by the university for a period of 91 days with the bank at an interest of 10.25 per cent per annum. The STDRs were to mature in June 2011, but an amount of Rs 20 crore was withdrawn from the deposited amount after 26 days of deposit. As per the complaint, the bank did not give any interest on this amount of Rs 20 crore for 26 days.

On requesting for the interest amount, the bank refused the request through a letter by stating that the bank was not accepting bulk deposits less than 30 days and hence was not paying any interest for bulk deposits.

The complainant stated that, in case of pre-mature withdrawal of the term deposit, interest needed to be paid for a period it had remained with the bank. The complainant also stated the bank had not informed them of the non-grant of interest on premature withdrawal.

"While banks are free to adopt their methodology, they should provide information to their depositors about the manner of calculation of interest appropriately while accepting the deposits and display the same at their branches," observed the forum as per the RBI guidelines, where it has been stated that some interest should be paid proportionately for the actual number of days of deposit.

The consumer forum, thus, allowed the complaint and levied a further penal interest of additional 2 per cent from the date it should have been paid, till the date it was now paid, to be given within 45 days.

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