Hyderabad: State Bank of India has gone on record to say that between September 2017 and January 2018 the average monthly supply of currency from the Reserve Bank of India to major currency chests of SBI in Telangana dropped to one-third of the average monthly supply of the previous 10 months. The cash crunch in TS can thus clearly be attributed to this reduced supply since SBI branches account for more than 30 per cent of all bank branches in TS.
City based RTI activist Rakesh Reddy filed an RTI with RBI and State Bank of India, asking about the monthly currency supply from RBI to currency chests of various banks in Telangana between January 2016 and January 2018.
RBI refused to disclose the information stating ‘receipt of request is exempted in terms of Section 8 (1) (g) of RTI Act.’ But SBI provided the information.
“The data provided by SBI to the RTI stated that there was good supply of currency notes from the RBI to SBI ATMs across the state for three months - June, July and August of 2017. Also, an amount of Rs 5,377 crore was pumped in, in July 2017, an increase in amount of what was supplied soon after the demonetisation period ” says Mr Reddy.
“However after July 2017, there has been a consistent reduction in the amount of cash received, which is the reason for most of the ATMs running dry and leading to the current heavy cash crunch in the state. What is also clear is that more low denomination notes are being supplied in the last five months,” added Mr Reddy, who is a data analyst.
The information provided in the RTI also said that there has been a reduction in supply of high currency notes like Rs 2,000 and Rs 500. Not a single new Rs 2,000 note was supplied by the RBI between April and November 2017. And in the case of Rs 500, the supply was nil between October and December. 2017. This is the cause of unavailability of high currency notes in ATMs.
