Hyderabad: Semi-urban and rural areas will be the worst affected with the new currency regime as there are only a handful of banks and post offices for lakhs of customers.
About two-thirds of the population live in rural areas and they have to travel miles to reach banks. The 10,434 villages in TS have 4,648 banks and 10,434 post offices. AP has 6,580 banks and 10.375 post offices for 17,366 villages. People in rural areas have to travel to nearby towns to exchange notes or make deposits.
Commission agents are thus cashing in on the illiteracy of rural people. In some areas they were collecting Rs 500 notes and giving back around Rs 400, depending on the local conditions.
Poor people receive social security pensions of Rs 1,000 and MNREGA funds from government in cash, and for them exchanging the amount will be a tedious task.
According to a State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) report, in AP there are about 6,580 branches of various banks. Among them 2,566 branches are in rural areas. In semi urban areas 1915, in urban areas 1,798 and in metro areas 301 branches have been set up.
In Telangana, according to the statistical yearbook 2016, there are 4648 bank branches. Among them State Bank of India has set up 1246 branches while other nationalized banks have 1855 branches.
There are 12 foreign banks, 798 regional rural banks and 737 private sector banks in the state. In Telangana, there is one bank branch for every 8,000 people.
Elsewhere, the ban imposed on high-value currency notes adversely affected normal life in the state on Wednesday. Telangana was in the grip of severe small-denomination currency storage with Rs 100 and Rs 50 notes getting exhausted within no time.
Credit and debit cards came to the rescue of the cash starved populace, as there are no restrictions on their use. Brokers and commission agents demanded Rs 100 commission for exchanging every Rs 500 note.
