Banks explain need to go digital; traders want digital infra to be set up

Hyderabad: After the hue and cry raised by the public about hardships faced at long ATM queues, bank managers are sending messages about the need for a cashless economy and how it will work.

In a recent message sent to customers, banks stated that demonetisation was a necessity to root out counterfeit notes and that it had a direct correlation with terror funding and other fraudulent activities.

In a detailed note to customers, bankers stated that the country could not progress with only 10 per cent of the population paying income tax. Hence efforts were being made through increased “digital transactions” to convenience customers and also root out corruption from the system.

The letter stated that it was very important that people’s savings and also of business establishments were used for investments rather than being stored at home.

Bankers also said that it was important that currency lying in banks was circulated in the market via the banks and not through individual lenders. Banks claim that this will help them to bring down interest rates. They claimed that semi-urban and rural areas would also be connected through digital services, which would help the rural areas too.

According to a study by MasterCard, printing, transporting, storage and exchange of soiled notes costs a hefty amount. Hence, digital transactions will not only benefit customers but also the economy, stated bankers.

Mr Ravindra Kumar, a retail merchant in the cloth market at Abids who received this message on Thursday morning was upset, “Going digital is accepted but there must be card swiping machines everywhere. These facilities are not there everywhere and before setting these up they are asking us to go digital. The banks must provide free-of-cost swipe machines to all vendors because of the existing situation. Instead of doing that, they are sending us mails on the need to go digital.”