Amid a cash crunch that has hit many states, the State Bank of India (SBI) has announced that debit card holders can withdraw money from the bank's Point of Sale (PoS) terminals. The move by India's biggest lender may temporarily help address the currency shortage that has gripped the country.
SBI will not charge any fees for the withdrawal even if the debit card holder is not an SBI customer. The step is expected to bring relief to people in many different parts of the country hit by the sudden cash crunch.
"Debit card holders of SBI and all other banks can withdraw cash from PoS machines installed by SBI across various merchant locations...To reach out and facilitate maximum number of people looking for convenient cash withdrawal, State Bank of India, country's largest lender is also providing facilities of cash through 'CashPOS' initiative," SBI said in a statement.
The SBI has a total of 6.08 lakh PoS machines out of which 4.78 lakh machines are enabled to dispense cash. For the debit card holders of other banks, the respective banks must enable the PoS facility for its customers, for them to be able to withdraw cash.
SBI's point of sale (POS) terminals are mostly installed at shops and known as 'Chotta ATM', 'Mini ATM' . Apart from SBI, private sector banks HDFC, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and others also provide PoS terminals.
The RBI guidelines allow withdrawal of Rs 1,000 in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities and Rs 2,000 in Tier 3 to Tier 6 cities per day per card from the PoS terminals.
There have been reports of ATMs running dry from Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.