Even after five months, the woes of demonetisation even have not ended as people to continue face shortage of cash in bank ATMs. Most of the ATM kiosks in Bhopal remain dry due to limited supply and flow of cash in the banks.
With the wedding season on, businessmen are feeling the pinch as they find many customers shying away from making digital payments for big purchases. Wedding purchases in rural areas are mainly done in cash and absence of cash in banks is affecting the market, says Mukesh Goyal of New Market Traders Association.
Out of the nearly one thousand ATM machines in Bhopal and adjoining areas, more than 40 percent reported to be out of cash at one point of time or other during last one week, said Sunil Notani, a travel operator and former office-bearer of Travel Association of India.
Vice president of Bhopal Chamber of Commerce Sunil Jain says, "People are not getting cash as ATMs are empty. Business is getting affected in this season as most of the purchasing by middle and lower class is done by cash not cards". Traders believe that there is still 20-25 percent decline in business due to lack of availability of cash.
Banks however feel that there is enough supply of new currency from Reserve Bank of India (RBI), but the currency in transaction is not returning to banks as deposits. Ajay Vyas, Field General Manager of Central Bank of India, said, "machines get empty within hours of their refilling. We are not getting enough currency notes back in our system".
It is believed that people are continuously hoarding cash which was depleted due to demonetisation. This is the reason why ATMs are getting exhausted so fast despite new currency notes being pumped into the market through banks and ATMs. There are many businesses and people who still believe in transiting in hard cash. Such people need cash apart from the political parties who spend in cash for their rallies and public shows.
There are around thousand ATMs in and around Bhopal town while entire Madhya Pradesh have 9902 ATMs of different banks. There are 7000 banks all over the state while Bhopal alone has 468 branches of different banks.
