50 days of note ban: In absence of cash, most ATMs still await 'acche din'

It's been fifty days since demonetisation announced. As people are waiting for the situation to get back to normal, almost 60-65 per cent ATMs are still waiting for the cash, reports The Indian Express.

The report quotes, Ramaswamy Venkatachalam, managing director, India and South Asia of Fidelity Information Services (FIS), a banking and payments technology provider, saying that the banks are still not able to provide the "full cash requirement" for running ATMs on a 247 basis.

"Around 37 per cent of FIS' 12,000 ATMs are dispensing cash. The country numbers are also in the range of 35-40%. (Lack of) cash availability in the right denominations is the main reason for ATMs not working," Venkatachalam said.

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Even after the recalibration of ATMs to dispense new currency has been done, majority of them dispensing only Rs 2,000 notes because of the scarcity of notes of lesser value.

"Typically, 5-10% of ATMs remain down at any point in time due to various reasons. Thus, it can be safely presumed that at least 1.8 to 1.9 lakh ATMs would have been functional at the time of the declaration of withdrawal of specified bank notes on the midnight of November 8. Since this happened on a Tuesday and within the first 10 days of the month, which is a peak period, most of the ATMs would have been replenished and would be dispensing cash at the time of the announcement. On the 28th (December), around 40% or around 0.8 lakh of the total ATMs would have dispensed cash but not up to full capacity," said Venkatachalam.

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After December 8, banks and ATMs have not seen a single less crowded day. And with the new year around the corner, the serpentine queues are only expected to grow as people are still struggling with the cash crisis.

However, in his first interview after the demonetisation announcement to India Today magazine, PM assured the nation that the situation will soon be under control.

The PM said he was well aware of the magnitude and complexity of the challenge. "It is no small thing that no significant incident of unrest has taken place in the country," he told India Today Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa. "At the same time, as with every other process, there is always room for improvement, and I believe that we can, and must, always improve."

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