Rama Krishna Sangem
All scheduled banks, both public and private, in Hyderabad city have witnessed deposit of Rs 2,000 notes, worth of around Rs 120 crore, in just two days – May 20, Saturday and 22 Monday. RBI has announced May 19,Friday evening withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes from circulation and gave time till September 30, 2023, to deposit the notes in banks in small doses – a maximum Rs 20,000 at a time, along with KYC (Know Your Customer) norms.
RBI stated that the process of depositing Rs 2,000 notes in banks will begin from May 23, Tuesday. Still, people started depositing the notes back from the very next day of the announcement to avoid last minute rush. Excel India gathered these information on the trends of returning of Rs 2 k notes to banks, by talking to officials of various banks at all levels.
They included branch managers, senior managers, cashiers, currency chest managers and zonal executives etc. “We started getting Rs 2,000 from Saturday, May 20, onward. As the notes are valid legal currency, we just cannot say no to the notes. Our customers have every right to deposit Rs 2 k, like any other notes,” said a HDFC branch manager the city. All the bank officers preferred not to be quoted.
HDFC’s all branches in Hyderabad are estimated to have collected around Rs 30 crore on the first two working days – Saturday and Monday. Same trend is witnessed in Axis Bank too. This private bank has seen Rs 2,000 notes worth of around Rs 20 crore in two days. SBI, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India have received these notes wroth Rs 40 crore worth, in the last two days.
Gold & Jewelry, silk sarees, costly watches sales go up
All other banks are believed to have received Rs 2,000 notes wroth of another Rs 30 crore, according to an officer working with the RBI regional office, Saifabad, in Hyderabad. The pace of depositing of these notes will pick up from Tuesday, May 23, the official starting time of the process. Besides bank getting back these notes, there are other forms where people started spending or splurging cash in Rs 2,000 notes (Splurging means not essential buys).
Gold and jewelry merchants, silk saree outlets, costly foreign watch – Rolex etc – shops are the other spending places in the last three days (including Sunday). “Customers are calling before coming to us, if we accept Rs 2,000 notes,” said a gold and jewelry shop senior manager in Punjagutta circle. “We have no reason to deny those notes, so we accept them<” he said. There is a marked increase in their sales in the last 3 days.
RBI estimates there are Rs 2,000 notes worth of Rs 3.63 lakh crore in the country.
