RBI should look into enhancing withdrawal limit: AIBEA

A bank employees' association has said the Reserve Bank of India should look into enhancing the withdrawal limit to Rs 40,000, post scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes from circulation.
All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) Secretary B S Rambabu said the task of exchanging notes and accepting old notes is not an easy one as most of the employees have not been prepared for this.
"Frankly speaking nobody discussed this with us (bank employees). Currently all banks are concentrating on recovery of bad loans. At this juncture, employees are unprepared... . We are ready to serve the people. We should have enough liquidity in lower denomination.

"Banks do not have such stock as of now. Pressure should be put on RBI to supply enough currency. This Rs 10,000 (in a day) or Rs 20,000 (in a week) withdrawal should be enhanced to either Rs 30,000 or Rs 40,000 immediately to withstand the pressure and panic among the public," Rambabu said.
On war footing the lower denomination should be supplied in large number to meet the demand, added Rambabu.
State Bank of Hyderabad managing director Santanu Mukherjee said they are making arrangements to shift employees from other activities to assist the staff in cash exchange counters for the next few days.

"We are putting the currency in ATMs so that when they open people can take money. We are trying to mobilise people who are doing other jobs. We will be opening extra number of counters also," Mukherjee told PTI.

According to him, SBH has about 2000 ATMs and nearly equal number of branches across the country.
According to RBI norms a person can exchange only Rs 4,000 of the old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 with lower denomination.
G Kranti, Secretary Reserve Bank of India Hyderabad Employees Association said the central bank is making elaborate arrangements to cope with the situation.

"We are ready work extra hours to meet the demand," Kranti said.
He said the RBI has taken all measures to distribute Rs 2000 notes to most of the cash chests of various banks in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
There are over 400 cash chests under RBI Hyderabad region.