Long queues of people were seen outside ATMs of various banks in the national capital and other place in the country for withdrawal of cash to meet their daily expenses. The ATM counters opened this morning after a two-day break following demonetisation of high value currency notes of 500 and 1000 rupees.
The withdrawal from ATMs is limited to a maximum of 2,000 rupees per card in a day till 18th of November. However, the limit will be raised to 4,000 rupees per day per card from 19th of November onwards. For the second day, people also thronged in large numbers to various branches of banks in the city to get their old notes exchanged.
Banks had said that cash could be withdrawn from ATMs from Thursday night itself but in many parts ATMs were out of service, for want of currency, leading to people’s consternation rising. However, people are still happy with the move to demonetise the notes.
The banks say that it would still take a few days before ATMs become fully functional. In Mumbai too there were long queues outside banks, and lengthy queues outside ATMs but many people were disappointed to see ‘out of service’ signs.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India has said that banks do have sufficient cash available with them and has urged the public to be patient.
There is enough cash available with banks and all arrangements have been made to reach the currency notes all over the country. Bank branches have already started exchanging notes since November 10, 2016.
The SBI has said that after the 500 and 1000 rupee notes being withdrawn, until noon of November 11, 53 thousand crore rupees had been deposited into the bank.
In Jammu and Kashmir people were seen queueing up to withdraw money from ATMs in Baramulla.
In Patna people went to post offices to change their money as well.
The government has given several concessions to people. Use of old notes valid in rail and air ticket purchases are one of them, some people were seen taking advantage of these concessions too. However to prevent money laundering these tickets are not refundable, and cannot be cancelled.
These concessions will now continue till the 14th of November.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday had said he was happy to know that people had accepted the change despite the temporary hardship they would have to face.
The Prime Minister assured the people that government is making every effort to end corruption and fight against black money.
Various government departments also are also working overtime to implement these measures. Government also says the decision will bring inflation down.
Despite the government’s best efforts the opposition parties are questioning the rationale of the decision. The BJP has hit back at its critics.
Amid the Political blame game one thing is clear that this is a decisive and bold step to get rid of black money, and the public despite their temporary hardships are well aware that in the long run such a scheme can only purge the economy of its manipulating influences.
SBI receives deposits worth Rs 53,000 cr
State Bank of India today said it has received deposits worth 53,000 crore rupees after the government scrapped 500 and 1,000 rupees notes and has exchanged currency worth about 1,500 crore rupees so far. The bank got deposits of 31,000 crore rupees yesterday.
SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya while announcing its quarterly result today in Mumbai said that till now, the amount of deposit is 22,000 crore rupees. The business is going well of demonetisation.
SBI had yesterday replaced about 750 crore rupees worth of notes with the junked ones, while till mid-day today it had exchanged currency amounting to 723 crore rupees. The bank has been able to press into service only about half of its ATM network nationwide. SBI put up 29,000 ATMs and Cash Deposit Machines (CDMs) of which 21,000 ATMs and rest are CDMs.