Shortage of money affects bank, ATM transactions

Visakhapatnam: Nearly 70 per cent of banks in the three north coastal districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam have been hit by shortage of currencies at ATMs and branches and the situation is likely to linger on for some time.

On Saturday, many banks gave away only Rs 2,000 currency notes.

Bankers attributed the problem to non-arrival of cash, particularly lower denominations, from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regional office in Hyderabad.

This led to many banks keeping their ATMs shut in the region. Srikakulam lead district manager P Venkateswara Rao told TOI that all banks had sufficient number of Rs 2,000 denominations and very less number of Rs 100s, which are in high demand now.

Rao further said the situation would improve after the arrival of Rs 2,250 crore sanctioned by the RBI to the state in the form of Rs 100 and Rs 50. A committee has also been set up to decide on the distribution of the Rs 2,250 crore in the state.

“For Srikakulam district, we sent an indent of Rs 200 crore in Rs 100 and Rs 50 denominations to the committee. The committee will decide on the amount on Saturday,” Venkateswara Rao said.

Deposits from Hundi collections at various temples were also not yielding the desired results in Srikakulam as the district has no big temples like Simhachalam in Vizag or the Kanaga Durga temple in Vijayawada, Rao said.

When contacted, B Vijaya Lakshmi, Andhra Bank deputy general manager for Visakhapatnam district, said the RBI may start distributing the money to the banks from Monday. “If they release on Monday, we may get them by Tuesday or Wednesday. We may be in a position to load the bank ATMs soon after receipt of the denominations next week,” Vijaya Lakshmi said.

Vijaya Lakshmi said so far, banks had distributed only Rs 100 notes and have recently started giving Rs 2,000. “The people with Rs 100 notes are safely stashing away the money and not using them for purchases with a fear of shortage of such notes in future. This is one of the reasons for the shortage,” Vijaya Lakshmi said.

The north coastal region consists of 1,310 branches of various banks. Visakhapatnam district alone has 44 banks with 733 branches with more than 1,100 ATMs. Srikakulam district has 293 branches of 29 banks, while 284 branches of 30 banks serve people in Vizianagaram district.