‘Rs 2,000 note withdrawal not without its share of problems’

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, May 23

Even as the withdrawal of currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination did not attract frenzied reaction unlike the time when demonetisation or Notebandi was announced, mainly due to its legal tender lasting up to September 30, different sections of society have reacted in varied ways. The All India Petroleum Dealers Association blamed consumers for using the Rs 2,000 note for making nominal purchases at filling stations.

People were annoyed at the branches of private and nationalised banks over their insistence to get the forms filled by people coming in to return the Rs 2,000 currency notes. Vimal Arora, a trader, said this was the treatment being given to customers when RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had announced that there was no need to fill forms while returning the Rs 2,000 denomination notes.

Joginder Pal Dhingra of the All India Petroleum Dealers Association said his association had requested the RBI to give guidelines to banks for providing enough small denomination notes, especially to petrol pumps in exchange of the withdrawn Rs 2,000 notes so that filling station can smoothly serve their customers. He said a majority of the customers were trying to use the Rs 2,000 note even for small purchases of Rs 100 and were expecting change from the petrol pumps. So, he said, filling station were extremely short of change. The digital payments, which used to be about 40 per cent of daily sales, suddenly went down to 10 per cent of daily sales and the cash sale increased dramatically.

PL Seth, president of the Punjab Pradesh Beopar Mandal, said they were complying with the norm of furnishing PAN for deposits of Rs 50,000 or more in bank accounts and a similar format was implemented for deposits of the withdrawn Rs 2,000 notes. Yet bank officials asking them to fill forms during the return of the withdrawn note was a regressive move. He said the withdrawn note continued to be a legal tender even in business transactions among the trading class.

Meanwhile, roadside stores were not accepting the withdrawn Rs 2,000 denomination notes, causing inconvenience to the ordinary customers.