SBI makes cash available through PoS

India’s largest public sector lender State Bank of India on Thursday stepped up efforts to make money available to people through Point of Sale machines (PoS) even as ATMs in several parts of the country continued to be cash-starved.

The bank said it was allowing cash@PoS initiative to ease the liquidity deficit through 4.78 lakh PoS machines across India which have been enabled to dispense cash. Withdrawals upto Rs 2,000 per day/ per card can be done through PoS.

The debit card holders of all banks can now withdraw from the SBI PoS machines across various merchant locations. The bank will not charge any fees for that, SBI said in a statement.

Customers can use SBI and any other bank debit card to withdraw cash upto Rs 2,000 in Tier 3 to 6 and upto Rs1,000 in Tier 1 and 2 cities per card per day presently without any charges, the SBI Chief Operating Officer Neeraj Vyas said.

Meanwhile, several banks including SBI continue to face cash shortage in Bengaluru and only 25% of their daily cash requirement is supplied by the head office. SBI has 2,500 ATMs and four currency chests in Bengaluru. Nationally, according to the ATM management companies, cash supply is not more than 45%.

"We are getting less than than 25% of the cash we require daily. If branches require Rs 40 lakh of cash on daily basis, they are given only Rs 15 lakh," a senior State Bank of India (SBI) official told DH.

SBI also promised to restore normal ATM services by Friday in other parts of the country including Bihar and Telangana where the cash crunch appeared severe. Chairman Rajnish Kumar said the cash is in transit to these places.

The bank has also removed the charges on selective cash deposits so as to aid its cash flow, with focus on Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The bank used to charge 0.75% on all its cash deposits.

"We have directed our zonal offices, especially in Bengaluru and Karnataka, to scrap off charges on large cash deposits. This will ease the stress on our ATMs to an extend," Vyas told DH.

"It is not a uniform cash crunch problem. It is there in geographies like Telangana and Bihar. We are hoping that the problem will be resolved by tomorrow because cash is in transition and it is reaching these states by today evening," Kumar told reporters here on the sidelines of an event.

He said though the cash situation had improved in certain pockets, the money deposited back in the banks was lesser and especially in the states like Telangana cash was not returning to the system.

"If we hold everything (currency notes), then whatever supply the banks do, will be insufficient for the country. So it is important that the currency is also recycled," the SBI chief said.

Separately, a banker's body in Gujarat has written to the RBI on the issue of ATMs running dry in the state.

Earlier in the day, the RBI placed restrictions on cash withdrawal from a Mumbai-based City Co-operative Bank to Rs 1,000 per account. But sources said the decision had nothing to do with the prevalent cash crunch. The City Co-operative Bank is controlled by Shiv Sena MP Anandrao Adsul and currently is in talks for merger with Saraswat Bank.

The government, however, continued to face criticism from various quarters including the apex bank union All India Bank Employees' Association which attacked the government for introducing Rs 2,000 notes.

“The problem has started with the government’s decision to print Rs.2000 notes. If withdrawing of Rs 1000 notes was to prevent hoarding of black money, it is only obvious that hoarding will become more easier with Rs 2000 notes. Hence it is only helping the hoarders,” AIBEA said.

But the BJP leader and Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said, “it is a political conspiracy to mislead the nation. People should remain cautious from such conspiracies.