A month after demonetisation, normalcy not in sight
SHILLONG: With scarcity of cash still prevailing, Chief Secretary KS Kropha held a meeting with the RBI and SBI officials on Wednesday to ensure that there is no hurdle in releasing the advance salary of state government employees for the upcoming festive season.
Every year during Christmas, government employees get advance pay, but with demonetisation, there is shortage of cash flow.
“The meeting was held to ease the problem and we hope that by December 20, we will be able to disburse the advance pay,” Kropha said.
A month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation on November 8, normalcy is yet to be restored as far as flow of cash is concerned. In several banks and ATMs, there is still shortage of new Rs 500 notes and the old Rs 100 notes.
Many shopkeepers and city residents said release of new Rs 2,000 notes by RBI was not necessary since getting change for Rs 2,000 is a difficult task.
With the cash withdrawal limit of Rs 2,500 per day from ATMs, several customers are getting only the new Rs 2,000 notes and not the new Rs 500 or currency of smaller denominations.
There was no new announcement either from the Centre or from RBI on raising the cash withdrawal limit from ATMs.
Moreover, many in the State are averse to carry on with cashless transactions though several shops had introduced Paytm facility, but with less takers.
A section of the people is also apprehensive about using swipe machines for transactions due to security reasons coupled with the possible reduction of certain percentage of amount during purchases.
A trader said that both cash and cashless transactions should go simultaneously as complete restriction on the use of cash will not be practical in a country like India.