Government taking all steps to ensure ATMs are replenished: Department of Economic Affairs on cash crunch

NEW DELHI: Amidst reports of an alleged cash crunch in the nation, SC Garg, Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, on Tuesday, assured that the government is doing it's utmost to resolve the situation at the earliest.

"The Government is taking all steps to ensure that ATMs are supplied with cash and to get the non-functional ATMs normalised at the earliest," Garg said.

"The Government of India would like to assure that there has been an adequate supply of currency notes which have met the demands so far. It would also like to assure it would be supplying adequate currency notes to meet even higher demand in coming days/months," he added.

"We print about 500 crores of Rs 500 notes per day. We have taken steps to raise this production 5 times. In next couple of days, we'll have a supply of about 2500 cr of Rs 500 notes per day. In a month, supply would be about 70000-75000 crores," informed Garg.

Earlier today, Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, took to Twitter to term the cash crunch in the country as a 'temporary shortage' and assured that the situation is being tackled quickly.

"Have reviewed the currency situation in the country. Overall there is more than the adequate currency in circulation and also available with the banks. The temporary shortage caused by 'sudden and unusual increase' in some areas is being tackled quickly," the Finance Minister tweeted.

Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla also commented on the issue, confirming reports of a cash crunch in the country, giving reassurances of resolving the shortage within three working days.

"We have cash currency of Rs.1,25,000 crores right now. There is one problem that some states have less currency and others have more. The government has formed a state-wise committee and RBI also formed a committee to transfer currency from one state to other. It will be done in three days," Shukla told ANI.