‘100s’ of problems for banks as pay-day nears

Weeks after demonetisation, there is still a severe shortage of 100 and 500 rupee notes in most of the banks, as only the new 2000 rupee notes are available. With salaries being credited at the beginning of the month, bank employees fear chaos and queues at the beginning of the months, with most ATMs out of cash and a limit of Rs 2000 at one shot.  C. P. Krishnan, State General Secretary, Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), said, “The government will credit salary for about 33 lakh central government employees, 14 lakh defence employees, 52-53 lakh government pensioners, which totals to around 1 crore. In addition, there will also be salaries of 80 lakh state government employees and 1 crore state government pensioners. The salaries will all be credited to their accounts online. 

Till now, people were withdrawing from the ATMs. But now, most of the ATMs in the state are yet to be recalibrated and even then, a person can withdraw only Rs 2000 at one time. Money too is in short supply, which will lead to people queuing up at the banks to withdraw money.” A few of the city banks have received a supply of 500 rupee notes. A source from a public-sector bank said, “We have received the 500 notes but it is not enough. The situation will change if the ATMs are recalibrated to dispense the new notes.” 

The bank manager of a nationalised bank in Teynampet said, “We need notes of lower denomination. Only then, we can meet the needs of our customers.” While a shipment of the new 500-rupee note was brought to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) here last week, it was insufficient to meet the demands of the banks. “We are expecting a new shipment of notes to arrive this week, which will ease the cash crunch,” said a source from RBI.