Till when will ATM cash crunch last? SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar gives deadline

Cash crunch at ATMs: With the public inconvenienced by a shortage of banknotes virtually across India, Rajnish Kumar, the chairman of State Bank of India (SBI) revealed that relief is well on way. He even gave a deadline by which the problem will be sorted. SBI chief said that the problem of cash crunch at ATMs will be sorted out by tomorrow, April 20, 2018. 

In a candid talk with Zee Business's Sameer Dixit, SBI chief Kumar said normalcy has returned almost across the country except one or two states, where the problem is still visible. He added, cash consignments have been sent to these areas and normalcy will be reached by tomorrow. In fact, the availability of cash in SBI ATMs has gone up to 82 per cent from 74 per cent and will go up more by the day's end. 

When asked about his opinion on National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) working, Kumar said, "We should support it. NCLT is a good process and every new process or law takes time to stabilise. Every capitalist economy should have an Insolvency and Bankruptcy code." He added that in our country the law has been enacted a bit late and is taking its time to stabilise.  

Holding accountable those who are hoarding cash, Rajnish Kumar said the money should be recycled, meaning that if people withdraw money from the bank and the money needs to be deposited back as well.
He added, "If we (people) hold everything, then whatever supply we (banks) do, it will be insufficient for the country. So it is important that the currency is also recycled." 

Earlier this week, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said that the government suspects that Rs 2,000 notes are being hoarded as they are not coming back into the circulation fast enough. To deal with currency shortage, the printing of Rs 500 notes have been increased 5 times, he added. 

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The finance ministry had also stated that there is an unusual spurt in demand in some parts of the country like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, MP and Bihar. In the first 13 days of the current month, the currency demand went up by Rs 45,000 crore.

(With Agency inputs)