SBI Chief Says Cash Crunch Situation To Be Resolved In Next One Week

The cash crunch situation reportedly resulted in the ATMs of states including Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Punjab running dry early this week. The Union finance minister Arun Jaitley assured the nation on Tuesday via a tweet, saying that the situation is temporary and the country has more than adequate currency. Even the State Bank of India's (SBI) chairman Rajnish Kumar also shrugged off the situation saying that the problem is seen only in a few states.

"In certain states, the demand has gone up and these states are MP, Telangana, Andhra (Pradesh), North Bihar and Punjab," he said.

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While attributing the reason for the ongoing cash crunch, Mr Kumar said, "The possible reason is that the procurement season has started. And the demand for payment to farmers has gone up."

While listing possible solutions to the problem, Kumar said, "In certain states, we have surplus currency, which we are also moving from one currency chest to another. (Besides this) And there is some requirement of Rs 500 notes which we have requested the RBI to supply."

He further admitted that some geographies have more cash than required and hence, through optimal supply chain, the temporary problem of cash crunch can be resolved.

"There may be a situation in certain geographies where there may be more cash available with the branch channel and the ATMs and because of the denomination issue, the cash may not be available," he said.

Rajnish Kumar said, "We are reviewing the situation constantly. And there is a huge team sitting in the State Bank of India (SBI), which monitors the situation and wherever the corrective action is required, we are taking that action."

He further assured the nation that the problem of cash crunch will be resolved in the next one week. "In the next one week, things should start returning to normal. And it's not that across the country that there is a problem," he said.