Maintaining that the state of panic among people is on the decline following the constant flow of cash at banks and ATMs, State Bank of India (SBI) chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said the bank will soon start dispensing Rs 50 and Rs 20 currency notes to further help the public.
The SBI chief told media that in all of their branches in the southern states, the workload has dropped to almost 50 per cent, which is a sure sign that people are assured that they will receive the money at their own convenience.
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However, talking about the inconvenience caused to the masses with ATMs running out of cash faster than expected, Bhattacharya added that ATMs are emptying out fast because it has a fixed space for notes of 100 and also the dimension of the new notes has changed, adding that the holding capacity in the ATM is confined.
“But what takes the most time is manual recalibration. A person has to come and physically add the money when it runs out. We hope and are trying that we can sort this problem by end of November. And if the chaos subsides by then, then we will also start dispensing 50 and 20 rupee notes in coming days,” she said.
Meanwhile, the government has set up a special task force headed by Deputy Governor of RBI to expedite the process of re-calibrating the ATMs to make them fully functional, which will work with different banks in this direction.
Addressing the media in New Delhi about Prime Minister’s meeting on Sunday to review the demonetisation and its impact , Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said Monday that the ATM re-calibration has started and some of the ATMs will start dispensing higher denominations, including 2000 rupee notes, from today or tomorrow.
The ATM limit has also been increased to 2,500 rupees, however, it will be disbursed only by the re-calibrated ATMs.
