Gujarat based co-operative banks have been put in a fix after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination currency notes since the past one week as account holders of these small banks have deposited more than Rs 1,000 crores in old currency notes.
Co-operatives banks in Gujarat generally known as small man’s bank are facing problem in storing these invalid currency notes. On the other these banks are receiving fresh currency notes and coins.
However, from Monday co-operative banks in Gujarat stopped accepting invalid currency notes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a circular barring the District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) in Gujarat from accepting or exchanging defunct currency notes from the people. Sources in the co-operative bank sector informed that temporarily leading banks and RBI were not accepting old currency notes from these banks and hence they were in a fix. Generally small co-operative banks do not deal in such huge amounts and hence they didn’t make any arrangement to store currency notes in hundreds of crores, said a senior official working with a leading co-operative bank in Ahmedabad, adding that these banks are also losing interest and worried about the money stored in safe deposit vault.
Meanwhile, local civic bodies in the State struck a goldmine after Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel’s announcement that municipal corporations and municipalities would accept due taxes in demonetised currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 till November 24.
Municipal Corporations of top two cities of Gujarat– Ahmedabad and Surat collected property tax more than Rs 140 crores in past four days. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation received approximately Rs 73 crore tax revenue while Surat Municipal Corporation collected more than Rs 71 crore during the
period.