ATM Cash Crunch: Currency issue resolution expected by tomorrow, says SBI chief

The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday said there is no cash crunch in the state and RBI has made enough cash available to all banks and ATM. Main banks like SBI, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Central Bank, ICICI, HDFC have confirmed availability of enough cash in their currency chests,” an official spokesperson said. D K Mittal, Former Secretary, Department Of Financial Services told in an interview,” The government has no role to play in Currency management, it is the sole domain of RBI”. Now after two days of cash crunch, SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar said that the problem with the running of ATMs in some states would be resolved by Friday as currency is being transported to areas which are facing cash shortage issue.

It is not a regular cash crunch problem. It is there in geographies like Telangana and Bihar. We are expecting that the problem will be resolved by tomorrow because cash is in transition and it is reaching these states by today evening,” Kumar said in his media conversation. According to government officials, cash position across the country is improving fast with over 80 percent of 2.2 lakh ATMs operating normally on Wednesday. Upasana Taku, director and co-founder of MobiKwik, said the recent cash crunch has ensured that more customers are using mobile wallets for their payments.

"Over 13 states are facing a cash crunch. Rs 7 lakh crores have gone out of supply. The govt has deprived people of the money they need during the wedding and sowing season."#CashCrunch#ATMsRunDry

— Avinash Pande (@avinashpandeinc) April 19, 2018

Over the last few days, we have seen a wave of 27 percent in our  QR-based payments as well as to digital payments merchants, primarily driven by the consumers in regions where the cash crunch is intense. We are seeing a 33 percent increase in KYC/e-KYC requests,” she added. Only Bihar and Telangana are the two states with lower cash right now, SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said. We will try to normalize situation at SBI ATMs in Bihar and Telangana by tomorrow,” Kumar added.On February 14, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu wrote a letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, seeking that the RBI provide Rs 5,000 crore to the state that “is facing a serious shortage of higher and lower denomination currency notes”.