Cash crunch: The ATMs in most of states in India were either not working or are out of cash.
In many states including Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, the ATMs are either
not working or are out of cash. People all across India including Delhi are tweeting about it. The reports of cash crunch at ATMs have brought back memories of November 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a midnight announcement said old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2000 will be scrapped.
Reports suggest officials of the finance ministry have held a meeting with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last Thursday, to take stock of the situation. Sources have told NDTV that RBI has directed banks with surplus cash to help other banks facing a shortage of funds. There is a mismatch of demand and supply of cash, say sources.
Here are the live updates on the cash crunch situation in various states:
Amid a cash crunch affecting several states in the country, the Dewas-based Bank Note Press accelerated printing of currency notes to meet the demand.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram tweets on cash crunch:
- A government is obliged to provide as much cash as the people need at any given time. Government or RBI cannot arbitrarily control the supply of cash.
- As a rule, cash supply must grow at the same rate as the economy is growing. The cash shortage may be because cash supply has been arbitrarily reduced.
- If RBI has injected sufficient cash, it is obliged to tell the people why there is a cash shortage.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said his state has also been facing a cash crunch and assured that the situation would be resolved soon. "Like many other states, Chhattisgarh has also been affected by the cash crunch. The situation will be resolved as soon as possible," he said.
Here's what Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said at a press conference:
- We have taken steps to increase the supply of currency in case the demand were to go up further.
- To give you an example, Rs 500 notes -- we print about 500 crore of notes per day. We have taken steps to raise this production five times.
- Very soon, in the next couple of days, we will have a supply of about Rs 2,500 crore worth of Rs 500 notes per day. In a month, supply would be about Rs 70,000-75,000 crore. These notes alone can more than meet the demand of any month
Currency shortage was reported in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh in the past few weeks. There were also complaints of shortage in parts of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Bihar on Monday.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has alleged a conspiracy behind Rs. 2,000 notes vanishing from the market. "Currency worth Rs. 15,00,000 crore was in circulation before demonetisation. Later, it increased to Rs. 16,50,000 crore. But notes of Rs. 2,000 are missing from the market," he said on Monday.
The Congress has questioned whether the situation was the result of "gross mismanagement or a deliberate move". "Modi-ji has destroyed the banking system. Nirav Modi fled with Rs. 30,000 crore and the PM didn't utter a word. We were forced to stand in queues as he snatched 500-1000 rupee notes from our pockets and put in Nirav Modi's pocket," party chief Rahul Gandhi said.
SBI Chief Rajnish Kumar told news agency ANI that, One reason is that procurement season has come and the payment to farmers have gone up. In Maharashtra and Mumbai there is no cash crunch as far as SBI is concerned.
In the next week, things will start coming back to normalcy. There is a department which monitors situations like this. This is not new. RBI has been given an indent to increase the flow of Rs 500 notes in the system, he added.
Mr Kumar also said that, this is a temporary situation which is mainly due to geographical factors. There is one solution for it that a proper cash management system be maintained.
Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said the government has formed a committee to address the problem of currency shortage in certain states and the issue would be resolved in next 2-3 days.
"The Government has set up state-wise committee and RBI has also formed a committee to transfer currency from one state to other because for money transfer you need the permission of the RBI. It (the shortage) will be solved in 2-3 days," Mr Shukla said.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said there is "more than adequate" currency in circulation and the temporary shortage in certain states is being "tackled quickly".
Mr Jaitley in a tweet said that he has reviewed the currency situation in the country.
Congress and the Left took potshots at the government; while the Congress questioned whether it is a "gross mismanagement or a deliberate move", Sitaram Yechury tweeted ATMs are dry but "only party flush with cash is the BJP."
Many ATMs in Patna are also out of service.
In Gujarat's Vadodara, people complained about the inconvenience due to lack of currency in ATMs.
The situation is same in Delhi. Most of the ATMs are not dispensing cash, the ones which are dispensing, have only Rs 500 notes.
The situation is same in Madhya Pradesh. People in Bhopal are also facing the same difficulty since past 15 days and are unable to withdraw cash.
In Varanasi people said they don't know what and where the problem is but the common man is facing a lot of difficulty because of the money not being alleviate in ATMs. Some have been infact visiting ATMs since morning as they need to pay the admission fees of children and purchase groceries and vegetables.
In Hyderabad people said, they have been unable to withdraw cash from ATMs. The have been trying since yesterday and the situation is same every where.
- There are reports of non- availability of cash at ATMs in several states
- In Hyderabad, Varanasi and Bhopal people say no cash at ATMs
- Reports of cash crunch at ATMs have brought back memories of November 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a midnight announcement said old notes will be scrapped.