So far, the notes, being supplied by banks in those areas, “are not commensurate with the requirements of rural population”, a notification at the central bank’s website said.
Therefore, banks maintaining currency chests should immediately step up issuance of fresh notes to rural branches of regional rural banks, district cooperative banks, other commercial banks, White Label ATM Operators (WLAOs) and post offices in rural areas on a priority basis, it said.
Financial services secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal held a meeting with bank chiefs on December 30 to impress upon the need to focus on rural areas. Increasing supply of notes was an important instruction she passed on to the bankers.
RBI’s latest circular can be seen in that context.
In its notification to banks, RBI said banks can work out the distribution of cash by counting how much of current and savings account deposits are mobilised from a district and the share of rural areas in it.
“Accordingly, all chests operating in a district must issue bank notes to the above mentioned distribution channels in the indicated proportion,” RBI said.
“In particular ATMs, including WLAOs, may be issued Rs 500s and Rs 100s and among ATMs category, off-site ATMs should be allocated higher proportion of cash as against on site ATMs as they are more important in last mile currency connectivity,” RBI said.
“Existing stock of other denominations notes below Rs 100 should be issued liberally,” the notification said, adding, banks should seek coins, obtain supply from the issue department of RBI if required, and ensure supply to public on priority basis.
The currency chests of banks will have to furnish daily data to their link offices, along with a weekly summary every Friday, stated the notification. The link offices, in turn, would forward the data to RBI’s regional office concerned to facilitate a review.
The link offices should monitor the daily reports “to avoid lumpiness in issuances and to ensure that issuances are evenly”, the notification added.
To read the full story, Subscribe Now at just Rs 249 a month
Already a subscriber? Log in
Subscribe To BS Premium
₹249
Renews automatically
₹1699₹1999
Opt for auto renewal and save Rs. 300 Renews automatically
₹1999
What you get on BS Premium?
-
Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app.
-
Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them.
Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006.
Preferential invites to Business Standard events.
Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more.
Need More Information - write to us at assist@bsmail.in