Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday slammed the Centre over public sector banks collecting crores in penalty from customers for not maintaining average monthly balance, alleging that the Modi government is hell-bent on emptying the pockets of the poor and the middle class.

Her attack on the government came after it emerged in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha that public sector banks collected around Rs 8,500 crore under this head in five years starting from financial year 2019-20.

Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary also informed Lok Sabha on Monday that the state-run banks have charged depositors Rs 2,331 crore penalty for not maintaining average monthly minimum balance in the financial year 2024.

In a post in Hindi, Priyanka Gandhi said, "It is the height of insensitivity to charge a penalty from a poor common person for not having money. In five years, government banks charged Rs 8,500 crore from the common people for not maintaining the minimum balance." The problem of not being able to maintain a minimum balance in the bank is faced by those sections of society who do not have money, have limited income and somehow manage to raise their families, the Congress general secretary said.

Indira Gandhi had nationalised the banks so that the poor could be helped and not make recoveries from them, Priyanka Gandhi said.

"The BJP government, which has waived off Rs 16 lakh crore of its industrialist friends, is also hell-bent on further emptying the pockets of the poor and the middle classes," she said.

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