Vadodara : Claiming that bank staff is facing public anger due to cash crunch at banks and ATMs, the All-India Banks Employees Association (AIBEA) on Thursday threatened to launch an agitation as it blamed the government and the RBI for the situation.
Bank employees are facing the wrath of the public for a problem created by the government and the Reserve Bank of India, association’s general secretary C H Venkatachalam said.
“Customers are shouting at us and abusing bank staff for no fault of theirs. Mere statements will not help. Concrete, immediate action is needed to improve the supply of currency notes,” he said. He threatened a nationwide agitation by the unions if the situation is not resolved at the earliest. However, he did not specify any timeline.
While the central bank has claimed that there is enough printing and supply of cash, the government attributed the unusual spike in cash demand to ongoing farm procurement. Blaming the government and the RBI for inadequate supply of cash, he said, in fact, the problem started with the decision to print Rs 2,000 notes after the note-ban announcement in November 2016.
Lenders, suppliers blame RBI for cash shortage
MUMBAI: Bankers and cash management firms blamed the cash crunch issue on inadequate supply of cash and seasonal rise in demand. The cash crunch also proved that the push for digitisation in banking and payments is not going as planned, since the demand for cash is clearly rising. Pointing out that the currency in circulation before demonetisation was around Rs 17.77 lakh crore, R Gandhi, former Deputy Governor of RBI said that the figure has now reached Rs 18.17 lakh crore. “Today we are at Rs 18.17 lakh crore but in between one year nine months, in the normal course, currency demand would have been an additional Rs 4-5 lakh crore.”
