Allow Old Currency Bills For Loans: AP CM Naidu

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today suggested that the Centre allow the usage of the old 500 and 1000 rupees currency notes at cooperative banks, immediately, for loan repayment, and a resolution to this effect was passed by the SLBC meeting approving for the same.

Naidu said that an appeal would be made to the RBI and the Centre to allow cooperative banks to accept old notes for loan repayments. The meeting also decided that no service charges would be levied till December 30 for those who were using RuPay cards, and that the charged capped by Visa / Master cards should be borne by merchants.

The Chief Minister requested all banks to rise to the occasion and mitigate the people the situation.

"The ban shall not stall economic activity in the State. This situation is a challenge for both the government and bankers. However it is also an opportunity for people to change their banking habits. A positive push shall be given to exhort people to go for cashless transactions," he said. He added that today's tech-savvy youth should be encouraged to use the mobile banking option.

The Chief Minister asked banks to help one another if either of them ran out of cash. This would ease the cumbersome process of waiting for money, he added.

The meeting also pointed out opening bank accounts, issuance of RuPay cards to all the people through business correspondents and encouraging cashless transactions among all sections of the society should be taken up to rid India of corruption and also move past the troubles caused by the ban. This would also help the Centre's goals, he added.

Naidu said that a request would be made to the Government of India to provide 80% subsidy on e-poss machines.

The officials apprised the CM on the performance of PMJDY accounts. The total number of Jan Dhan accounts till September 11 was 79,09,626 with a total deposited amount of 908.56 crores. Out of the total number of accounts, 61,37,292 have been seeded by Aadhaar number, which comes to around 77.59%.

Also, 66,37,402 RuPay cards had been issued, but only 27,34,351 cards were activated. The CM sought bankers' intervention to address the issue with RuPay cards. The TDP supremo requested bankers to ask all their branches to deliver the cards to people who haven't received them yet. They were also asked to engage business correspondents and retired employees to educate account holders on the benefits of using RuPay and on the future of a cashless economy.

As the number of ATMs recalibrated for the new currency is only 1,577 in the State, the Chief Minister asked banks to activate all ATMs along with re-calibrating them to dispense the new currency notes.

To mitigate the hardship due to demonetization, the CM announced that Rs. 2 crores per district, totaling an amount of Rs. 26 crores, would be released in 13 districts of AP.