People ‘depositing’ Rs 2,000 notes more

GUWAHATI: People were found depositing Rs 2,000 currency notes in their accounts instead of exchanging them, bank insiders said on the first day of exchanging or depositing the junked notes on Tuesday.
Though RBI has been expecting most of the withdrawn Rs 2,000 notes to be returned by the deadline of September 30, in Assam, bankers said the notes were practically not in circulation for a long time.
“From the common man to the traders, we have seen that they had Rs 2,000 notes stocked at home. For some reason, they kept it as cash. But they have started coming to banks for exchange after knowing that these will be invalid,” said a staff of SBI’s Guwahati Airport branch.
Though no extra rush has been witnessed in any bank in the city for the exchange or deposit, the SBI authority is monitoring the situation closely, said Suranjana Dutta, general manager (Network-I) of northeast circle.
“Normal operations are going on in the banks. We are going ahead with RBI instructions under which people coming with Rs 2,000 notes can exchange these with notes of lower denomination or deposit those in bank accounts. Today was the first day and that’s why many people might have been planning to come to the banks by September 30, which is still far,” Dutta said.
Bank officials said the exchange and deposit is going on in the existing counters as of now.
People, however, were complaining that shops were refusing to accept the currency though those are still in circulation.