Despite the Reserve Bank of India hiking cash supply to beat the rush, cash crunch affected wage earners on the crucial payday in several sectors on Thursday. Most of the banks have rationed the withdrawal and are not giving the weekly limit of Rs24,000 as announced by the Government even after the salaries and pensions were credited to their accounts. Employees of the business enterprises which make salary payments in cash have been badly affected. However, the day passed off peacefully.
While long queues were seen before banks as only Rs2,000 could be withdrawn from ATMs, the situation at ATMs was no different. Bank officials claimed that although 90 per cent of the 2 lakh ATMs across the country have been re-calibrated to dispense the new Rs500 and Rs2,000 notes, they continue to function below capacity due to inadequate cash supply from the RBI. Bank officials also claimed that they are getting only 20 per cent of the cash that is required to run the ATMs in a normal manner. They added the cash supply to several branches have been slow effecting withdrawals.
At several places people stood in queues since 5 am to withdraw cash. Some used social media to vent their ire. “1st day of the month. Salary rush makes #cashchaos worst. 3 long queues outside PNB, Kachahri Road Meerut,” tweeted Ankit Tyagi.
In bureaucracy, where most of the senior Government officials who got their salaries on Thursday avoided rushing to banks or ATMs. “Since most of the work is done through online or card swipe I will wait for a few more days to withdraw cash,” said an official.
There were some who had withdrawn sufficient amount to make salary payments to their workers, particularly domestic helps, etc, while some have decided to stagger the payments.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee alleged that West Bengal and some States were being discriminated against in supply of new currency notes. She demanded that RBI should furnish details of notes distributed to each State.
“Rs 500, Rs 100, and smaller currency notes are not seen in Bengal and many parts of the country. They have become a rare commodity. let RBI release all figures as to which State is getting which currency. There is total discrimination in disbursement of cash,” Mamata said in a statement.
“The salaried class is not getting its own money from banks. If those in the organised sector are facing serious problems, you can imagine how grim the situation is in the unorganised sector. Even RBI has not given many State Governments critically necessary funds despite making announcements,” added the Bengal CM.
In Kerala, treasury and bank officials heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday evening as the first payday for Government employees and pensioners since the demonetisation of high-value currency notes ended without any serious problems. Though the Reserve Bank’s failure to provide Treasuries with cash in required volume triggered protests from pensioners in several places, the process went off rather smoothly on Thursday in most Treasuries thanks to the joint efforts of Kerala Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac, his department, Treasury and bank officials and the Reserve Bank.
Claiming that there was crisis still on the salary and pension disbursal front, Isaac said, “Despite these problems we were able to manage things to an extent today. I congratulate Treasury officials and others for that. However, it is the responsibility of the RBI to ensure sufficient and steady cash supply in the coming days. Otherwise, the crisis will be more serious.”
Payment of pensions and salaries were almost normal in the major cities and other urban areas but pay distribution was affected in rural areas due to lack of currency notes. Though the Finance Minister had instructed Treasuries and banks where Government payments were being made to give Rs 24,000 each to employees, several Treasuries had to limit this to Rs 10,000 or less.