Kolkata: The All India Reserve Bank Employees’ Association (AIRBEA) on Monday flagged an “acute shortage” of small denomination currency notes across the country, causing widespread hardship to common people and hurting small businesses.
In a letter to the Reserve Bank of India, the AIRBEA claimed that small denomination notes – Rs 10, Rs 20 and Rs 50 – are “almost unavailable” in many parts of the country, particularly in semi-urban and rural areas.
While higher denomination notes like Rs 100, Rs 200 and Rs 500 are “easily available”, ATMs largely dispense only higher value notes and bank branches are unable to supply smaller denominations, the association said in the letter addressed to RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Shankar, who is in charge of the Department of Currency Management.
The situation has made daily cash transactions difficult for people, including payments for local transport, groceries and other essential purchases, it said.
AIRBEA noted that despite the push for digital transactions, overall currency circulation continues to rise.
Digital payments, it said, cannot fully replace the need for small denomination cash, especially for a large section of the population dependent on cash for day-to-day needs.
The association also pointed out that attempts to replace small notes with coins have not yielded results, due to inadequate availability.
Seeking urgent intervention, AIRBEA demanded that the RBI ensure adequate circulation of small denomination notes through commercial banks as well as RBI counters.
It also called for wider circulation of coins and suggested that RBI revive ‘coin melas’ in urban and rural areas in coordination with panchayats, cooperatives, regional rural banks and self-help groups.
