New Delhi, Jul 27 (IANS): State-run banks have unclaimed deposits worth Rs 16,596.90 crore, the Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

Unclaimed deposits are those deposits where proceeds or maturity amount has not been claimed for a period of at least 10 years.

Data provided by Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad, in a written reply in the the Rajya Sabha, also showed the unclaimed deposits in public sector banks (PSBs) is spread across over 5.47 crore accounts.

Unclaimed deposits with private banks, as of December 2020, was Rs 2,963.54 crore, in 88.67 lakh accounts.

A total of Rs 3,577.56 crore worth of unclaimed deposits were present with the State Bank of India (SBI), the data showed.

Such deposits with regional rural banks stood at Rs 601.15 crore, as of 2020.

Foreign banks have an accumulated unclaimed deposit of Rs 612.33 crore.

Citing the data provided by the Reserve Bank of India, the minister said that the total amount of unclaimed deposits in scheduled commercial banks by the end of 2020 stood at Rs 24,356.41 crore.

"RBI has informed that unclaimed deposits have increased by Rs 5,977 crore in the year 2020, as compared to the year 2019, on account of depositors not having claimed their deposits from banks," Karad said.

He added that the central bank has advised banks to play a more pro-active role in finding the whereabouts of the accountholders of unclaimed deposits or inoperative accounts.

"Pursuant to the amendment of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, and insertion of section 26A, the RBI has framed the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund (Fund) Scheme, 2014 (Scheme). The scheme has already been notified vide Gazette Notification dated May 24, 2014. As per the Scheme, the Fund is utilised for promotion of depositors' interests and for such other purposes which may be necessary for promotion of depositors' interest as may be specified by the RBI," he said.