Cent per cent banking district feels the pinch

KOCHI: Despite being 100% banking district, the banking activities in Ernakulam has been affected to a great extend in the aftermath of demonetisation. Cash withdrawal through ATMs and bank branches in the district, which has around 1,100 branches of 45 banks and 1,500 ATMs, has also been affected. This has applied brakes on the purchasing capacity and impacted several business sectors.
According to district lead bank authorities, they have got several complaints related to withdrawal of money from various banks.“Many customers called up to register complaints regarding difficulties in carrying out transactions. However, the number of complaints we get has come down in the past few days,” said C Satheesh, district lead bank manager.
Small hotels, fish vending stalls, grocery shops and lottery vendors have taken a hit. “There is a dip in business by Rs 6,000 to 7,000 a day. Earlier, our daily revenue was around Rs 15,000. Now, it has come down to Rs 8,000 - Rs 9,000,” said Venkitesh, manager of small hotel in the city.
The withdrawal limit at Rs 24,000 has come as a jolt to those who started construction work on their houses and families which have weddings coming up.
There are many instances of marriages being postponed and house constructions stopped.
“I stopped the construction of my house three weeks ago. I am unable to withdraw the amount required for purchasing raw materials and pay wages to labourers,” said Sunny hailing from Cheranelloor.
According district leader bank authorities, there are around 35 lakh bank accounts in the district with a total population of around 33 lakh.
“Of the 33 lakh population, only adults would be holding bank accounts. This means that each adult in the district holds an average of 1.5 bank accounts,” an official with Union Bank said. “People, especially those in rural areas, have been affected because most of them don’t use hard cash,” said Satheesh, lead bank manager.
Unavailability small denomination notes coupled with ban on high denomination bank notes also caused hardships for customers. Officials asked customers to accept less volume of cash so they could cater to the demands of maximum number of people standing in the line, at least partially. So, a person who demanded Rs 20,000 would have to be satisfied with Rs 10,000. There were cases in which customers had to trudge several kilometres as ATMs ran out cash.
According to banks like SBT, there isn’t much problem now. Sivananda H S, deputy general manager, SBT, Kochi zone, said activities are back to normal with the bank calibrating all 200 ATMs in the zone (Idukki and Ernakulam) district so that they can dispense Rs 2,000 notes. “We will fill our ATMs with Rs 500 notes soon. So, there won’t be much problem for our customers,” Sivananda said.
The crisis in the co-operative sector has added to people’s woes. “There are around 300 primary cooperative banks in the district. They can’t withdraw deposits or use the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination notes. Many people in the rural areas in the district depend on cooperative banks,” said N K Paulose, president, Ernakulam district cooperative bank.