CHENNAI: The announcement of a rise in the limit for withdrawing cash from ATMs from Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,500 a day from Sunday has not brought about any significant difference in the situation as customers complained that the machines did not have enough cash. Worse still, some of the ATMs remained shut. “I went to three ATMs at Nungambakkam today, and all three didn’t have cash,” said Shobi Ashika, a student. “I have to pay my rent and I’m unsure how I’m going to do that.”
While several machines are without cash, the ones that have money do not permit withdrawal of Rs 4500. Outside an ATM at Valluvar Kottam, a board reads “Withdraw only `4,000.” Rajasekaran P, who had come to withdraw money said, “This is the only ATM that at least allows so much withdrawals. The ones I visited earlier allowed only Rs 2,000.”
Small traders and vendors claim that the increase in withdrawal ceiling does not make any difference to them. While the daily ceiling for withdrawal has been increased, the weekly limit remains at Rs 24,000 for the public and Rs 50,000 for small traders. “We spend a lot of time in the queue. So we withdraw the whole sum in one instalment using a withdrawal slip,” said Kamakshi R, a grocery vendor who doesn’t know how to withdraw money using card.
While only around 40 percent of the cash is pumped back into the economy, raising the daily withdrawal limit alone will not ease the financial constraints faced by people. “The banks can’t be blamed if ATMs don’t have cash. Unless more money is printed and put into circulation, increasing the withdrawal limit will not make a difference,” said Kamalan J of T Nagar who was standing outside an ATM which was not functioning. “We try our best to get the situation in control, but we keep running out of cash very quickly. The situation might take at least two or three months before it returns to normalcy,” said a cashier in a nationalised bank.