RBI Order All Banks To Immediately Dispense Rs 200 Currency Notes Via ATMs!

It has been quite a while since Rs 200 currency note has been officially launched by the RBI. But strangely, currencies of Rs 200 are still not available at 90% of the ATMs. Those who are withdrawing money from the bank branch may get few Rs 200 currency notes, but largely, the currency is still out of bounds.

Understanding the real problem, Reserve Bank of India has given strict instructions to all banks for dispensing Rs 200 currency notes as soon as possible.

And, as per reports, banks will collectively spend Rs 110 crore for this exercise.

But, why the delay?

RBI To Banks: Dispense Rs 200 Currency Notes Now!

In the month of August, it was announced officially by Ministry of Finance, that Rs 200 notes would be launched. Now, almost 5 months have passed, and still, this currency remains elusive for the majority of the population.

RBI has noted this delay and has ordered all banks to immediately dispense these notes via ATMs.

A bank official said,

“RBI has asked banks and ATM manufacturers to ensure that ATMs start dispensing Rs 200 notes as soon as possible”, adding that it will take 5-6 months to complete this.

ATMs would be required to re-calibrated in order to accommodate Rs 200 notes, and the process has already begun. If we believe reports, then banks will collectively spend around Rs 110 crore to re-calibrate the ATMs, and to enable Rs 200 currency note in the ATMs.

Unlike last year, when immediately after demonetization it was all chaos in the ATMs as they were not calibrated for the new Rs 2000 and Rs 500 notes, this time, it would be well-planned,

Antony, MD – Hitachi Payment Services said,

“It is a planned approach this time. We have to identify clusters of ATMs and calibrate them. If this happened in a rush, maybe the cost would have been higher, but it’s all planned.”

Around 2.2 lakh ATMs will be now re-calibrated at an expense of Rs 110 crore, over a period of 6 months.

Why RBI Had To Intervene?

Mainly because of two reasons: High volume of Rs 2000 currency note circulating in the system, and the big gap between Rs 2000 and Rs 500, which is still causing inconvenience to the general public.

At present, Rs 17 lakh crore worth of Rs 2000 currency notes are circulating in the system, which is 95% of the pre-demonetization level.

This defies the purpose, which was to stop black money circulation, as notes of higher denominations are easier to carry and circulate for such purposes.

As we had reported earlier, Rs 2000 currency notes are not being printed now, and focus is on Rs 500 and Rs 200 notes.

We will keep you updated as we receive more information.