New Delhi – The Indian government Monday announced a slew of measures to deal with a cash shortage brought on by its decision to abolish high-denomination currency notes.
India’s highest denomination 500 and 1,000 rupee notes (7.5 and 15 dollars) ceased to be legal tender from Wednesday as part of a government crackdown against “black money”, or untaxed money and counterfeit currency used for financing terrorism.
The Finance Ministry held a review meeting to tackle the situation as ATM machines were taken offline to be recalibrated to disburse the new currency and banks were overrun with desperate customers, some of whom queueing for up to seven hours to exchange currency.
From Thursday to Sunday, banks had collected 3 trillion rupees worth of the higher denomination notes and had managed to distribute only 500 billion.
Finance Secretary Shaktikanta Das said mobile banking vans and banking correspondents – banking representatives offering financial services outside bank branches – would fan around rural areas to distribute small denomination notes, and new micro cash machines would be used all over the country to disburse cash.
Banks had been asked to arrange for separate queues for senior citizens and people with disabilities, Das said.
It had been announced Sunday that the old currency notes could be used at petrol stations, hospitals and to pay utility bills for another 10 days till November 24.
Daily limits on the amounts that could be exchanged per person at banks or withdrawn from banks and ATMs have been increased, Das said. Recalibrated ATM machines would start disbursing new 500 and 2000 rupee denomination notes within two days, he added.
– dpa
