VIJAYAWADA: Payday has turned nightmarish for bankers and customers alike, as a majority of the city’s ATMs ran dry within minutes of cash being replenished, forcing people to make a beeline outside banks. Banks here are struggling to meet the demand for cash on Pay Day and expect the rush to continue, if not increase, for the next 10 days. Both nationalised and private banks are struggling due to the cash crunch.
“We are trying our best to disburse cash to customers. Since the demand is high, ATMs are being rendered cashless quickly. As majority of the employees receive their pay by first of every month, people are turning up at banks in huge numbers. We expect the rush to continue till the second week,” said State Bank of Hyderabad, Mogalrajpuram, branch manager V Gopal.
Even banks are unable to disburse change since most of the currency that is being distributed from RBI is in Rs 2000 notes. Majority of the banks in the city are limiting cash withdrawals to Rs 6,000. Branches are compelled to resort to rationing because of cash shortage and it is difficult to meet the withdrawal limit of Rs 24,000 per person set by the RBI.
“I need Rs 20,000 to pay rent for my home and shop and also pay wages to my employees. But the bank staff were only giving Rs 6,000 for any transaction, saying there is no cash. I almost spent half of my working day at the bank to receive this Rs 6,000. Looks like I will have to spend the entire month at banks to get the balance amount,” said V Anjaneyulu, a small trader on Besant road. The otherwise joyful salary day has become a bane in the days of demonetisation for those heavily dependent on cash transactions. Although claims were made by various banks that adequate arrangements would be made to tide over cash crisis on Pay Day, branches are seen rationing cash depending on their currency stock position. The tight cash crunch situation has also given rise to tiffs between staffers and customers at banks.
“There is separate line for senior citizens, who come to receive pensions at banks. The bank is completely crowded even before the opening time. Once open, customers rush to the counters and make serpentine queues before them. “I waited in line for almost three hours to receive my pension of Rs 1500,” said G Savithramma, pensioner, Andhra bank Siddartha Nagar.
Although the state government has given a special provision to withdraw Rs 10,000 for the government employees as a part of their salary, the bank managements were asking them to provide a copy of their department ID, to prove that they are government servant.
Making matters worse, a large number of ATMs are still dry -- most without money and some out of order. Despite recalibration of nearly 80 per cent of ATMs in the city, majority of them are out of cash.
On the other side, the people are struggling with the problem of change as the operational ones are mostly dispensing high denomination Rs 2,000 notes. People are still going to ATMs to check their luck in withdrawing the cash even after seeing ‘out of cash’ boards. To make matters worse, certain working ATMs are facing an issue with servers and taking almost 10-15 minutes for processing a transaction.
“I have tried over 20 ATMs of various banks in the city to withdraw some amount to pay my room rent. But to my despair every ATM I go to is either dry or out of service. I almost spent 2 litres of petrol hunting for ATMs,” says V Rajesh, who stood in a long serpentine queue at SBI ATM Moghalrajpuram.