VIJAYAWADA:Express visited five banks in Vijayawada, and found that a majority of them have put on hold their regular services like issue of debit/credit cards, cheque books until December 30. Loans are being sanctioned but the payment is in instalments. They are in fact in no position to even honour cheques. One customer, N Venkatesh walked into the SBI branch at Gandhi Nagar on Friday to encash a cheque of `15,000. He was told to make it ‘even’ — meaning it should be either `14,000 or `16,000. “I was issued a cheque for my salary. Now I have to go back to my management and get another cheque issued,” the customer fumed.
Short on `100 and `500 notes, banks are accepting cheques but are in no position to pay the full amount. Some banks like Indian Bank are accepting cheques and paying only up to `4,000. For the rest, the customer has to visit the bank again.
Those seeking to open new accounts were turned away throughout November and this created some peculiar problems for some customers.
N Sivaram, who recently joined as a salesperson in a supermarket, opened his account on Friday at a nationalised bank. He had applied on November 10 but was turned away and missed his first salary. “I felt bad. I could not encash my cheque without an account. I started working to support my family but I only ran up a debt,” he complained.
Similar was the case of T Rajesh, a medical rep, who could not open an account in November and missed his pay.