MADHU AGRAWAL
It refers to Juxtaposing report presented in the Lok Sabha after the SBI Ecoflash report implying that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may be holding back rupees-2000 notes which had to be issued under compulsion to meet exigencies created due to currency-crunch developed due to demonetisation. It is also noteworthy that rupees-2000 notes are presently mostly held up by those dealing in unaccounted money.
But new notes of rupees 200 and 50 are still not in circulation, and are being sold on premium even despite issued several months ago. New-designed smaller-sized notes of rupees 100, 20 and 10 are yet to be issued. Gradual issue of new-designed smaller-sized notes in different denominations in a phased manner at intervals does not allow these to be dispensed through ATMs due to calibration required to change tray-sizes of ATMs. RBI and central government should now issue new-designed smaller-sized notes in denominations of rupees 100 and 10 on priority but simultaneously so that ATM-trays may be changed in one go to handle smaller-sized notes of rupees 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 with ATM-trays already equipped to handle new-designed smaller-sized 500-rupees notes.