Day after holiday, queues are back, banks go extra mile

In order to provide respite to cash-starved citizens, the government on Sunday made a decision to increase the withdrawal and exchange limits in banks and ATMs across the country.

The government has also chose to increase the cash withdrawal limit to ‘50,000 per week for small businesses.

India announced a week ago that it was withdrawing 500 and 1,000 rupee notes as legal tender to fight corruption and tax evasion.

Cash withdrawal limit at ATMs was hiked to 2,500 rupees from 2,000 rupees a day.

Yesterday, the withdrawal limit from ATMs (recalibrated machines) was raised to Rs 2,500 from Rs 2,000.

The government has taken several measures to ease the supply of cash and ensure the waiting time for customers at bank branches are reduced.

– The existing exemptions for acceptance of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes for certain types of transactions are being extended beyond November 14, 2016 midnight up to November 24, 2016 mid night.

Banks received three trillion rupees in deposits in the first four days of the ban taking effect, the Finance Ministry said in a statement late on Sunday.

There was partial relief for the cash-starved public in Indore on Monday, six days after the Union government demonetised the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes.

Focus of government is to dispense cash fast. As a result of this, those who have already exchanged old currency notes are unable to interchange again on the same day due to the ink mark. The government is also setting up a task force to expedite the process of recalibration of all automated teller machines (ATM) across the country to minimise the cash crunch.

After the move of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes Demonetisation the RBI has again chose to waive the charges for the ATM Transaction till the year end.

More micro ATMs have come into function to dispense cash on debit cards.

On being asked where she expects interest rates to fall in the near term, Bhattacharya answered in affirmative, but cautioned that a rising amount of deposits in savings account could push up liability for the bank.