In the first 13 days of the current month, the currency demand went up by Rs 45,000 crore. In Picture: Rajnish Kumar, SBI chairman-designate. (Photo: PTI)
Two days after cash crunch, SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar Thursday said that the problem with running of ATMs in some states will be resolved by Friday as currency is being transported to areas which are facing shortage.
“It is not a uniform cash crunch problem. It is there in geographies like Telangana and Bihar. We are hoping that the problem will be resolved by tomorrow because cash is in transition and it is reaching these states by today evening,” Kumar said in a quote to PTI.
Holding the people who are hoarding cash accountable, he said that the money should be recycled, which means that if people withdraw money from the bank then the money needs to be deposited back as well.
“If we (people) hold everything, then whatever supply we (banks) do, it will be insufficient for the country. So it is important that the currency is also recycled,” he said.
The Finance Ministry had earlier said that the currency demand went up by Rs 45,000 crore in the first 13 days of the current month. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday tweeted saying that the situation is temporary and the country has more than adequate currency.
Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg had earlier this week said that the government suspects that Rs 2,000 notes are being hoarded as they are not coming back into the circulation fast enough. To deal with currency shortage, the printing of Rs 500 notes have been increased five times.
In the first three months of calendar year 2018, the frequency and the ticket size of transactions at Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) across the country, on an average, has gone up by 10 per cent, according to cash logistics firms and ATM service providers in India, leading to a currency crunch in many states.
Officials of firms that manage services across 2.21 lakh ATMs in the country also said that the current cash crunch in a few states could largely be due to a decline in “cash velocity” in those states leading to “an artificial shortage of cash”. The low cash velocity, officials said, is also triggered by less supply of currency notes of lower denomination.