Cash crunch: 95% of ATMS re-calibrated, but only 35% of them functioning

POST DEMONETISATION

ONE MONTH into demonetisation, there has been a significant increase in digital payments.

According to AP Hota, managing director and chief executive of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), transactions through Rupay point of sale (POS) machines have increased five times from 3 lakh to 15 lakh per day. Rupay e-commerce transactions have also increased from 1.5 lakh to 3 lakh per day. “IMPS transactions have seen a significant rise from 1 million to 2 million per day, while UPI transactions have increased from 10,000 to 45,000 a day since demonetisation,” said Hota.

India’s largest public sector bank, the State Bank of India, has also seen a jump in POS transactionsfrom3.5lakhto11lakhadaywith more people using debit cards. SBI’S Appbuddy has seen a rise in the number of

newregistrationswithatleast50,000registrations a day.

Meanwhile, 95 per cent of the 2.2 lakh automated teller machines (ATMS) have been re-calibrated to dispense the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes, though only 35 per cent of the re-calibrated ATMS are functioning in the country at present. According to Ramaswamy Venkatachalam, managing director of Fidelity Information Services, a fintech services firm, the ATMS are facing cash crunch as the banks diverted most of the money received by the Reserve Bank of India to its branches, expectingmorewithdrawalsfromthebankbranches on payday on December 1.

“Apart from this, while the ATMS have been re-calibrated, there still isn’t enough supply of Rs 500 notes in the system. We are expecting things to ease out in the next week as the RBI is pumping in more Rs 500 notes,” said Venkatachalam.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of the State Bank of India, too said the banks were hoping to get enough Rs 500 notes to disburse it among the customers over the counter.

“Already, Rs 500 notes have started coming to all our branches. In fact, most of the ATMS are now getting stocked with Rs 500. Hopefully, by next week we will have enough Rs 500 to start giving them out at the bank counters as well. Once the Rs 500 comes in, it will act as a span breaker between the Rs 100 and the Rs 2,000 ...,” Bhattacharya said in an interview to television channel CNBC TV18.