Business Correspondents of commercial banks in rural areas of Tirupur district are in a predicament post demonetisation.
Since their incomes are purely based on the commissions against transactions carried out, the currency shortage and the withdrawal restrictions have adversely affected them.
They usually help the customers in rural areas access banking services such as cash deposits and withdrawals at their doorsteps.
“After demonetisation, the situation turned pathetic. For the first few days, hand held devices given to us were switched off and no transactions were possible. The withdrawals of old age pension in the rural areas have been restored. However, we cannot carry out the transactions since adequate number of currencies in smaller denominations are not available to disburse Rs. 1,000 given as pension,” said J. Krishnavijayan, a business correspondent of a nationalised bank at Iduvai village.
In the case of deposits, the business correspondents say that they have been asked to direct their customers to go to banks branches, which are many kilometres away.
R. Manimeghalai, another business correspondent of a nationalised bank at Karuvallur village, too narrated the hardships faced by her.
People like Mr. Krishnavijayan and Ms. Manimeghalai usually get cumulative commissions varying from Rs. 11,000 to Rs. 15,000 a month based on the performances in the respective months. They are heavily dependent on such income to run families.
Even customers too feel that the situation has worsened. C. Muthusamy (65), who rent out steel utensils for marriage functions, and Ganapathy (72), who sells apparel on a cycle, now have to travel many kilometres to a bank to do banking transactions.
