Even as the currency crunch continues to bite the common folks, the Telangana Government’s bid to ensure that its 3,50,000 employees get at least part of their salary in cash, may come to naught.
Though the State Finance Department has issued a circular to all the banks where the employees have their salary account requesting for special counters to pay Rs10,000 in cash to all the employees and the pensioners, there was confusion as the Reserve Bank of India has reportedly expressed its inability to make cash payment of salaries.
The State Government had approached the RBI after the Telangana Non Gazetted Officers Union had made a representation seeking cash payment in view of the currency shortage and the long queues at the banks and the non-functioning ATMs.
The finance department has also requested the banks to set up special counters and extend their working hours till late in the night so all the employees and pensioners get the cash payment.
As this will require at least Rs500 crore in cash, the RBI has expressed its inability to arrange such a big amount of cash on short notice due to the shortage of money in all the banks.
A senior State Government official said that it was doubtful whether the employees will get the payment in cash with many of the banks not having sufficient amount of valid currency notes.
So far only some of the banks were able to service their customers and make payments mostly in the new note of Rs2,000 or Rs100.
Majority of the banks in Hyderabad including the public sectors banks were still returning the customers empty handed.
Meanwhile a bank official said that the situation was likely to improve slightly in a couple of days as the new Rs 500 currency notes will reach the city from the RBI chest.
“But again there will be a problem as the ATMs will have to recalibrated to dispense the new Rs 500 currency which was vastly different from the earlier 500 note.
The rumors that the new Rs 2000 currency note was only a stop gap arrangement and they will also be withdrawn any time as made people apprehensive from accepting the big value notes from the banks or any body else.
Meanwhile as their efforts to promote the cashless transactions the government of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were taking various initiatives.
Telangana government has decided to provide RuPay card to all the bank account holders in the country by getting the officials in all the districts coordinate and guide the people in this direction.
The RuPay is a card issued by the National Payments Corporation of India to promote the cashless economy in the rural areas.
Andhra Pradesh government on the other hand the Andhra Pradesh government was promoting “AP Purse”, a folder which will have various payment apps and tool.
The government has tied up with FreeCharge, a digital payments platform to facilitate digital payments and cashless transactions in the state.