[New Delhi] Jaitley Regrets Inconvenience,Urges Patience in Changing Currency Notes
Central Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday regretted hardships caused due to withdrawal of high denomination notes but advised the public to be patient as the move will have larger benefits for the economy in long term.
He said it may take up to 2-3 weeks for all the 2 lakh cash vending ATMs to operate normally as each one has to be calibrated individually to dispense new sized notes of INR 2000 and INR 500 besides lower denomination currency of INR 100.
Assuring that RBI and banks have stacked up enough currency to replace the INR 14 lakh crore worth of INR 1000/500 notes that have been declared invalid, he said the government is constantly monitoring the situation as it is a “massive operation”.
.At a hurriedly called press conference, Jaitley urged people not to flock the banks to exchange the now-defunct banknotes, asking them to stagger it over the 50-day window provided by the government for the purpose.
Hardly 40 per cent of the ATMs were operating in the country and they too ran out of cash within hours. The new INR 500 note was available only in Delhi and Mumbai and RBI has already started releasing soiled INR 100 notes to cope with the demand.
Terming demonetisation as a massive operation, he said there will be inconvenience in the first few days “but the long term advantages of this are to the overall economy”.
“It is a regret that people are being inconvenienced.
Because a replacement of this magnitude will cause inconvenience as you have to go to the bank, you have to stand in a queue,” he said.
In the short run, he said, some “obvious” disruption will be caused in the short term.
“But once the money is available both in the system and more so in the banking system, the advantages of that to the economy and businesses will be far more. The capacity of the banks with all this additional capital to lend and support businesses is going to be far higher.
“And therefore medium term and long term advantages to the economy as against this temporary inconvenience or disruption, are far too many,” he said.
Photo Caption
.The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley addressing a press conference on Indian Currency, in New Delhi on November 12, 2016.