Chennai: Don’t blame the ATMs if the cash is not dispensed or curse bank employees if they plead inability to disburse cash because the banks in Tamil Nadu are running out of currencies including small change. Perhaps a negative aspect of the demonetisation implemented in post-haste!
Banks don’t have the resource to pay salaries and pension sum from tomorrow onwards or ensure uninterrupted cash flow through ATMs. The promised Rs 500 note denomination is yet to arrive to the state and they are already starved due to the ‘rationing’ of money, say bankers who expect the cash withdrawal restriction imposed following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Nov. 8 announcement banning Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations, to continue entirely till December-end.
“The situation may ease thereafter. Banks have a reserve balance of Rs 3,000 crore as on date. We immediately need Rs 10,000 crore to be paid as salaries and pension throughout TN during the first week of December,” says D. Thomas Franco Rajendra Dev, president, All India Bank Officers Confederation – Tamil Nadu (AIBOC-TN). “Since we have run out of currency notes of smaller denominations, we have urged Tasmac outlets to deposit their collections with the bank branches immediately,” he added.
The reason why both the nationalised banks and corporate banks face the financial crunch is that the RBI has not made available sufficient funds nor has it allotted '500 currency as it had provided Rs 2,000 notes to the banks.
“We were asked to maintain secrecy when RBI gave Rs 2,000 notes. What had prevented the RBI from issuing Rs 500 notes then? Now, we are left to face the brunt of people’s ire in not loading the ATMs or provide change across the counter,” a senior bank official lamented.
Even RBI’s distribution of money to the banks has caused gross resentment among the nationalised banks. After the PM’s announcement, RBI has allotted Rs 6,100 crore (including Rs 4,500 crore to ICICI, Rs 700 crore to Axis Bank and Rs 900 crore to HDFC) and only Rs 7,800 crore to the nationalised banks.
