Frustration and anger boiled over amid chaos and serpentine queues at banks today as less than half of ATMs were functional for only a few hours and banks struggled to cope with the rush for new currency notes.
Servers broke down, as did patience, at most branches where the average waiting time to get the limited quota of valid notes came close to 3 hours.
Despite the assurance, most ATMs across the country did not function and many branches ran out of cash, leaving people who waited for hours high and dry.
"It has taken me three hours and when my turn came, I was told that there was no cash left. I have to make such a futile effort to withdraw my own money," said a frustrated customer Shaswat Rai from Mumbai, the financial capital of the country.
Reports of chaos and scuffle at bank branches and ATMs streamed in from different parts of the country.
There were also heated exchanges between hassled customers and overworked bank officials at several branches.
Since the recalibration for higher denomination of valid notes is being done for ATMs, the stock of low value Rs 100 got over very fast because of the huge demand, said a banker.
Many ATMs are still waiting for recalibration, the banker said, adding that the rush is expected to grow further during the weekend.
The country's largest lender, SBI, was able to press into service only about half of its ATM network nationwide.
"We have also been able to put up 29,000 ATMs and cash deposit machines today. Of these, 21,000 ATMs were functional and the rest are CDMs," SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said.
Post offices which have been designated to exchange cash have also been a scene of chaos across the country.
Taking into consideration problems faced by people, the government has extended use of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for paying household utility bills, fuel, taxes and fees as well as purchases from co-operative stores by another 72 hours to November 14.
Bankers informally are expressing their inability to
handle such a large rush for exchange and also spoke of the safety and security issue.
Meanwhile, most banks have informed their customers that all cash withdrawal transactions at their ATMs will be free of cost and there will be no cash handling charges till December 30.
But withdrawal from ATMs is limited to a maximum of Rs 2,000 per card a day up to November 18. The limit will be raised to Rs 4,000 from November 19 onwards, bankers said.
There are nearly 2 lakh ATMs in the country and most of them are configured to dispense only old Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 notes.
To soothe anguished customers, RBI assured that enough cash is available for exchanging the invalid Rs 5,00/1000 notes and asked people to be "patient".
The central bank, however, conceded that it may take a while for banks to recalibrate ATMs and once that is done, "members of the public will be able to withdraw from ATMs up to a maximum of Rs 2,000 per card per day up to November 18, 2016".
The silver lining is there is spurt in electronic payment. The usage of RuPay cards at point of sale (PoS) terminals at shops and retail outlets has jumped, with the daily number and value of such transactions doubling over the last two days.
