The
demonetization of OHD notes by the government w.e.f 9th November
2016 was a bold step towards curbing the menace of black money in our country. This
move was welcomed by a large section of society even though it created a lot of
inconvenience to them.
The
decision to withdraw the OHD notes was announced after banking hours by giving
a few hours to black money holders to do something. Banks were given time to
customize their Core Banking Solution (CBS) and ATM Switch. Everything went
perfect till this point. But when the Banks reopened for business after this,
there was not enough legal tender currency in the system to meet the
requirements of general public. Only new two thousand rupee notes were pumped
into the economy adding fuel to the situation. People were struggling to get
change for two thousand notes. Five hundred rupee notes are still not available
in many branches. If five hundred notes were released along with two thousand,
situation would not have been worsened this much.
Adding
to the woes of rural population, Reserve Bank has denied the exchange of OHD
notes in cooperative banks. Still a major chunk of rural population is
dependent on cooperative banks for their banking requirements. At least the
provision of exchange of notes would have been given to those cooperative banks
where CBS is implemented. Also the unavailability of enough cash in cooperative
banks, especially in village cooperative banks is affecting the rural economy.
Reserve bank and government should take immediate steps to sort out the cash
crunch in cooperative banks to save the rural economy.
In
spite of all the hardships, majority of people have welcomed the step to curb
the black money circulation. Even though there are some short term disturbances
in the economy, this step will be beneficial in a long term. Inflation should
come down which will give more comfort to the common man. Also this would give
a huge push towards digitizing the economy.
Bank
employees across the country, especially in the branches have done an appreciable
job in dealing with the situation.
The
opinions mentioned above are purely of the author and does not have political
or any other interests.
