State faces acute shortage of coins
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Shillong is one of the few cities in the region where there is a huge shortage of coins especially the smaller denomination coins of Rs.1, Rs. 2 and Rs. 5.
Shortage of coins has reached the extreme level in the State and shopkeepers have made it a habit to reiterate their inability to issue small denomination coins to the customers.
Speaking to media persons here on Monday, the MD of the State Bank of India (SBI) Krishna Kumar stated that the SBI cannot do anything to overcome the shortage of coins.
Shillong is one of the cities which has been hit by scarcity of coins and low denomination currency notes. The probhas resulted in exchange of argument between customers and vendors.
“Banks cannot do anything as we have to solely depend on the Reserve Bank of India for the circulation of coins,” Krishna Kumar said here on Monday.
Surprisingly, the problem of coin shortage does not exist in the neighbouring city of Guwahati and smaller denomination coins of 50 paise is still acceptable there unlike Meghalaya.
SBI Chief General Manger of North East circle RK Garg also stated that the RBI supply the coins through the Traders Association after which it reaches the market.
“We have already asked the RBI to circulate more coins so that there is no scarcity of coins,” RK Garg added while speaking to media person here
The only group who are benefiting from shortage of coins in the city are the taxi drivers who never return the exact change to people so the taxi fare is automatically raised to a round figure of Rs 10,15,20.