Cash withdrawals from automated teller machines (ATMs) nearly halved to about ₹1.27 lakh crore during April, mainly on account of the impact of the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
The withdrawals were ₹2.51 lakh crore in March.
According to data released by the RBI in monthly bulletin for June, the number of transactions or cash withdrawal volume from ATMs also declined 28.66 crore in April from 54.71 crore in the previous month.
April was the first full month of lockdown, due to which movements were restricted in a majority parts of the country.
The number of transactions through ATMs using debit cards also fell to nearly half to 28.52 crore in April, compared with 54.41 crore in the preceding month, the data said.
There were over 88.68 crore cards in April, including 5.73 crore credit cards and 82.94 debit cards. The total number of cards in March were about 88.63 crore.
There were 2.34 lakh ATMs and 50.85 lakh point of sale (PoS) terminals.
Cash withdrawal volumes at PoS machines, however, increased in April to 40.87 lakh, from 33.69 lakh in March. In terms of value, cash withdrawal at PoS machines stood at ₹111 crore, compared with ₹110 crore in March, the RBI data showed.
The number of transactions at micro ATMs using the Aadhaar-enabled payment system more than doubled to 875.54 lakh in April from 344.98 lakh.
Meanwhile, according to an article published in the monthly bulletin for June 2020, net financial assets of Indian households after having moderated in 2018-19 gathered pace in 2019-20, touching the levels reached in 2017-18 at 7.7 per cent of GDP.
The improvement has occurred due to moderation in household bank borrowings being sharper than those in bank deposits, it said.
As per the article, households’ gross financial liabilities turned negative in the first quarter of 2019-20 owing mainly to contraction in borrowings from commercial banks but picked up thereafter and peaked in the fourth quarter of 2019-20, reflecting apart from the seasonal uptick, higher borrowings induced by COVID-19-related hardships.
Both financial assets and liabilities of households remain bank-centric, with some shift in favour of mutual funds and insurance in recent quarters.
.
A letter from the Editor
Dear Readers,
The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.
Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.
In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.
We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.
But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.
I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.
A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!
Support Quality Journalism