It refers to the juxtaposing report presented in the Lok Sabha after the SBI Ecoflash report implying that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may be holding back Rs 2000 notes which had to be issued under compulsion to meet exigencies created due to currency-crunch developed due to demonetisation. It is also noteworthy that Rs 2000 notes are presently mostly held up by those dealing in unaccounted money.
But new notes of Rs 200 and Rs 50 are still not in circulation, and are being sold on premium even despite issued several months ago. New-designed smaller-sized notes of Rs 100, Rs 20 and Rs 10 are yet to be issued. Gradual issue of new-designed smaller-sized notes in different denominations in a phased manner at intervals does not allow these to be dispensed through ATMs due to calibration required to change tray-sizes of ATMs. RBI and central government should now issue new-designed smaller-sized notes in denominations of Rs 100 and Rs 10 on priority but simultaneously so that ATM-trays may be changed in one go to handle smaller-sized notes of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50, Rs 100 and Rs 200 with ATM-trays already equipped to handle new-designed smaller-sized Rs 500 notes.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
