New cash norms fail to bring respite as ATMs run dry
NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India may have increased the ATM withdrawal limit to `4,500 but almost half of the machines are still running dry as cash is in short supply, bank officials and unions have said.
Cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, however, have fared better because of the greater focus on replenishing the ATMs.
The central bank announced the increase in withdrawal limit on December 30, the last day for depositing the scrapped `500 and `1,000 notes. It was also the day the government was to revisit the cash restrictions announced with the demonetisation decision.
“The large number of ATMs which are idle today will start functioning once more 500 rupee notes come into the market. But, it will take some time,” State Bank of India group chief economist Soumya Kanti Ghosh told HT.
The scrapping of the two highvalue bills sucked out 86% of the currency in circulation, leading to a cash crunch that forced millions of Indians to queue up for hours outside banks and ATMs.
Though the queues have shortened but cash crunch is far from over. While `15 lakh crore worth of currency was taken out of circulation, only `6.5 lakh crore has been put back.
All the 220,000 ATMs in the country have been recalibrated
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to dispense the new `2,000 and `500 notes introduced after demonetisation, cash supply still remains a concern.
Thegovernmenthascomeunder fire from the Opposition for note ban and the cash chaos. Addressing the nation on the New Year’s Eve, PM Narendra Modi said the focus would be to bring banking operations back to normal.
“Most of the ATMs are still not working. The ATMs need to work through the day. Till that happens there is no meaning of these announcements, the moot point is the supply of cash and that needs to be worked on,” CH Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association, told HT.
The shortage of cash is more acute in rural areas which have a limited number of branches and ATMs. The focus was on supplying cash to areas where people were largely dependent on cash, bank officials said.
According to an SBI report, it will be by January-end that 75% of the value of the scrapped currency would be back.
ATMs located in “busy areas” such as shopping centres, offices or rail and metro stations were being given priority. “We have identified some areas for ATM replenishment... banks are first trying to fill up ATMs with very high footfall,” an executive with a private bank said.