Finance Minister Eatala Rajender has said there is shortage of currency is prevailing in the banks and ATMs and the State Level Bankers Committee had also confirmed it.
Replying to a query from MIM member Syed Aminul Hasan Jafri during the Question Hour in the Legislative Council on shortage of currency notes here on Thursday, Mr. Rajender said that after demonetisation State had received ₹ 73,642 crore worth currency notes, that was 15 % more in value than the demonetised high denomination notes. But people who withdrew cash apparently not been depositing it back in the same measure as they reverted back to cash transactions.
Ironically, Centre resorted to demonetisation to increase digital transactions and bring transparency into system but the cash transactions increased again. After introduction of GST and accounts were linked to Aadhaar, people were weary of doing digital transactions fearing income tax notices and again started dealing in cash transactions without depositing it back in the banks, Mr. Rajender said.
The Finance Minister said the currency shortage issue was already represented to the RBI Governor and the Union Finance Minister was requested to provide ₹5,000 crore currency notes to the State as it proposed to disburse ₹4,000 per acre from April 20 under the Cash Investment Support scheme.
He said that the State Level Bankers Committee convener informed the government that the shortage of currency was due to inadequate supply of currency by RBI, reduction in inflow of currency from public particularly ATM fit notes/denominations. The Minister said that while the requirement of higher denomination notes were more, currency supply was in lower denominations.
Mr. Eatala Rajender who is also Civil Supplies Minister clarified to BJP member N. Ramachandra Rao that issuance of Food Security Cards were temporarily suspended in Hyderabad to enable roll out of ePoS in all districts of Telangana. Some technical issues were encountered due to migration of people from GHMC areas to rural areas and vice versa. To avoid duplication, issue of food security cards were delayed till the complete roll out of ePoS machines in the State. Now, again cards were being issued to eligible people and 20,298 cards were restored after due enquiries, he said.
He also said that while Centre gave rice at ₹3 a kg to 50.13 lakh BPL families in Telangana region under the Food Security Act in 2013, after formation of Telangana, the government extended the scheme to 35.22 lakh families additionally at ₹1 a kg and spending its own funds of ₹3,000 crore towards subsidy. While Centre would give 5 kg per person, State increased it to 6 kg per person without cap on the number of members in the family.
