As the pay day approaches, banks are facing huge crisis of nonavailability of cash. Many banks has recommended the employers to opt for pre-paid payment cards for salary.

“We are making arrangements so that there aren’t any problems in the days to come. There should not be any inconvenience to the salaried class, pensioners or any section of society. We have made arrangements, and will be able to say whether these are adequate or not only on the day when money comes into the accounts of pensioners and salaried people. We’re hopeful that there won’t be any problems,” said a top official of the Bank of Maharashtra.

“The daily ATM withdrawal limit of Rs 2,500 and weekly cash withdrawal limit of Rs 24,000 from the branches will ease the pressure considerably. But we are keeping our fingers crossed. We’re getting only 35-40 per cent of the total cash requirement from RBI. Many of our ATMs are dry. As many customers have now started using digital mode for various transactions, the pressure has come down a bit,” said an official of a leading private sector bank.

“We have fixed daily cash withdrawal limit of Rs 3,000 per account as of now. We don’t have enough cash to meet the demand,” said an executive of the Catholic Syrian Bank in Mumbai.

“The Finance Ministry has suggested to private companies to make salary payments to their employees digitally. It has been suggested that they should make salary payments through debit cards or prepaid cards,” said a ministry official.

By Premji