RBI asks banks to recalibrate ATMs for Rs 200 notes; 1 billion new Rs 10 notes printed

In a move to make notes of lower denominations available to the public, RBI has asked banks to recalibrate ATMs so that more Rs 200 notes can be dispensed. According to reports, this push is going to cost the banking industry Rs 110 crore. Banks would have to recalibrate 2.2 lakh ATMs across the country and each ATM would cost an estimated Rs 5000.

The project would involve installation of spacers to adjust the size of the currency. The Economic Times quoted a banker saying that it could take 5-6 months to smoothly implement this project.

Although the circulation of notes have gone to 95 per cent of what it was before demonetisation, the shortage of lower denomination notes have been criticised by critics and public alike. However, as mentioned by the Finance Ministry in Lok Sabha, the RBI has already printed 16.96 billion Rs 500 notes and 3.6 billion Rs 2000 notes as of December 8. The value of this adds up to Rs 15.79 trillion, which has grown to Rs 16.71 trillion by December 22.

Not only Rs 200 notes, the RBI is all set to issue new Rs 10 notes as well. According to reports, RBI has already printed 1 billion Rs 10 notes. The new Rs 10 note will have chocolate brown as the base colour and will bear the image of Konark Sun Temple.

The new Rs 10 note will be part of the Mahatma Gandhi series. The RBI introduced new Rs 50 and Rs 200 notes under this series in August last year.

On November 8, 2016, PM Modi announced that all Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes would no longer be legal tender. That constituted 86 per cent of the currency in circulation at that point. Till then, 95 per cent of all transactions in India were conducted in cash and 85 per cent of workers were paid in cash. According to reports, almost half of India's population did not have bank accounts.

In its annual report for 2016-17, the RBI disclosed that 99 per cent of those obsolete notes were returned to the banking system. This led everyone from initial critics of demonetisation, politicians, and average working class citizens to question the point of demonetisation.