No relief in sight yet for Aam Aadmi

Exactly one month after demonetisation, daily routine of an average Indian has changed a lot now.

Waiting for 2-3 hours a day in queues at banks/ATMs has become commonplace. Then walking back with disappointment when cash is not available, with a hope for a better next day, and declining payments to be made to others with an apologetic smile have become part of life.

“When I heard Prime Minister Modi announcing on November 8, I expected trouble for only a week at the most. But still goes on indefinitely,’’ Bandla Venkatesh, a vegetable vendor, told Business Line while waiting in a queue at State Bank of India local head office here on Thursday.

The daily routine is being managed mostly on credit. “Informal credit is helping us. I have not paid rent to my house owner yet and am buying provisions and milk on credit,’’ said L Venkateshwarlu, a clerk in a motor transport firm.

The upper cap on cash withdrawal from savings and current accounts is still on at ₹24,000 and ₹50,000, respectively, along with the internal limits bank imposed depending on their cash position. And, there is no end in sight.

To add to the trouble, banks are also insisting on Re-checking Know Your Customer (KYC) norms that take about 10 days now.

“The fact that many bank branches are running out of cash within hours after opening of business hours and many ATMs are shut down shows that cash crunch continues to bother people. We expect the same to last for a minimum of 1-2 months more,’’ a senior official of Punjab National Bank said. The estimated number of functional ATMs in the country is only around 45,000 (for few hours a day) out of 2.30 lakh ATMs.

While corporate employees have been supported by their management and banks with exclusive facilities such as disbursal of money in their offices and digital transactions, many others who are working for small private firms are ending up waiting in queues by availing leave.

“Most of the workers in this industrial area are working only for half-day as they are forced to wait for withdrawal of money,’’ said Ramesh, who runs a unit of rolling shutters at Jeedimetla industrial area here. The wage labourers and migrant workers are worst hit as most of them are still being paid in withdrawn notes of ₹500 and do not have bank accounts to exchange them.

“We have been advising our workers to exchange old notes in petrol pumps, of course, for a price,’’ said M Rattaih, a labour contractor.

On a positive note, the need to switch over to digital transactions has been recognised by one and all.

Over a dozen banks have launched mobile wallet apps in the last one month and stepped up campaigning asking people to use them.

The RuPay card usage has gained traction from four lakh transactions a day prior to over one million now along with the Jan Dhan accounts which of course are being tracked by the government to prevent them from being used to paint black money white.

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