While ATMs and even bank branches are running out of cash, it is intriguing that many are being caught with hoards of the new currency. How is this happening?
Given that banks are hardly allowing a person to withdraw more than Rs 20,000, it is not easy to take out Rs 1-2 crore. A packet (100 notes) of Rs 2,000 is worth Rs 2 lakh; a bundle (10 packets) amounts to Rs 20 lakh. So, Rs 1 crore would mean five bundles. The cash that a bank gets is accounted for, hence, if the withdrawal is from a branch there would be an audit trail.
There are other ways cash may be withdrawn without an account being debited. The first source is the Reserve Bank of India. The biggest source is the currency press. Have notes been distributed through these channels? If so how, by whom, to whom, and when? Have such notes found their way into circulation illegally before November 8, the day demonetisation was announced?
There have been media reports of a surge in bank deposits in the last 15 days of September. This and the inventory of notes printed and distributed need to be investigated under the aegis of the Supreme Court. The matter is serious enough for a suo moto notice to be issued.
T R Ramaswami, Mumbai
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