HYDERABAD: Fifty days after demonetisation, banks across the city are still struggling to serve customers in withdrawing their cash. Though the situation has improved, according to bank officals, many banks in the city still are unable to dispense the weekly permitted `24,000 for savings and `50,000 for current accounts.
“We are getting more cash consignments in our branch but we are not able to give more than `4,000 at a time for those who come to withdraw,” said a private bank official. We have set a limit as there is no clarity on when we will get the next cash consignment. We don’t want to turn our account holders empty handed as that will affect our reputation,” said the official.
Most banks have chosen to only serve their own branch customers. This has stopped many customers who have bank accounts in other districts or in other states to withdraw money from their bank’s branch in the city. There has been no instructions from the RBI, directing banks to restrict service to just their home branch customers.
“In the first few days the banks did allow account holders from other branches to make withdrawal but that led to overcrowding and some home branch customers were quarrelling due to this,” said Anil Kumar, general secretary, All India Bank Officers Union. Most banks faced the same problem which is why the restriction has been brought in, he added.
“Our greatest concern is that we cant serve our customers. The government says the problem will be resolved in three months but we expect the situation to continue for six months,” said Kumar.
Adding to the burden of banks is the Centre’s directive, asking banks to promote digital platforms. “There has been oral and written instructions to do so,” added Kumar.
“They are asking us to promote digital transactions through PayTm and mobile banking. There is a shortage of Point of Sales (PoS) machines in the country and these machines are currently being imported. We have no PoS machines to provide our customers with these machines,” said Kumar.
“We are being asked to go the educate public about digital transactions, but considering our increased workload and the fact that there are many people who are illiterate, educating them in such a short span is not possible,” he added.