Hyderabad: Once people shift to cashless transactions, thousands of ATMs, on which banks spent crores of rupees, will be of little use.
Banks will save by not setting up new ATMs. According to a bank officer, it takes Rs 6 lakh to set up an ATM and about Rs 50,000 to maintain it every month.
After demonetisation and restrictions on cash withdrawal on November 8, many people moved to cashless transactions. Banks are providing various services like withdrawal of cash, deposits and cash transfer through ATMs but they are being used mainly for cash withdrawal.
Once people move to cashless transactions, all the ATM services will be available on smartphones, except depositing cash.
AP Planning Board Vice Chairman and financial expert, C Kutumba Rao said Estonia was the only country doing 100 per cent cashless transactions. He said it would take time for all people in the country to move to cashless transactions; 86 per cent in India depended on cash.
In AP out of 8,036 ATMs, 5,900 are working and about 1,577 ATMs were recalibrated for new currency. In TS out of 8,969 ATMs more than half are not working. In many ATMs, banks have stopped filling currency and in some others they are filling small amounts.
