Demonetisation: Currency recall could cost India a massive Rs 1.28 lakh crore, says CMIE

The cost of withdrawing high-denomination currency notes to wipe out black money from the country will be about Rs 1.28 lakh crore during the 50-day window till December 30, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said.The overall cost could be much higher, the private economy watcher estimated. The demonetisation invalidated 86% of the Rs 17.8 lakh crore of currency that was in circulation on October 28. “A steady stream of news reports of empty mandis, low footfalls at malls and drop in business in restaurants, stressed factories...

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No more over-the-counter exchange of old notes

Facing severe attack in the wake of difficulties thrown up by demonetisation, government tonight extended till December 15 the facility of using old Rs. 500 notes in public utilities and included more services like mobile recharge but stopped the over-the-counter exchange of defunct currencies and use of Rs. 1,000 notes.From now on payment of fees up to Rs. 2,000 per student has been allowed in schools and colleges run by central and states governments, municipalities and local bodies.Payment towards pre-paid mobile top-up to a limit of Rs....

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60 per cent of SBI ATMs are calibrated, operational

As of Wednesday, State Bank of India has managed to calibrate 60 per cent of its ATMs.The rest would be done within the next five days, the bank's Chairperson, Arundhati Bhattacharya, said on the sidelines of SBI's Community Service Banking organised at the bank's Administrative Office premises in Coimbatore.She also admitted that though 60 per cent of the ATMs were calibrated, most of these automated teller machines were loaded with the new Rs. 2,000 currency, because the new Rs. 500 note was not available in the first few days. “It has just...

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SBI, associate banks merger on track

State Bank of India Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya on Thursday said that the merger of associate banks with SBI is on track and remains unaffected because of the demonetisation move.“There is a separate team working on this and they are not into demonetisation exercise,” she told reporters in Coimbatore.She said the demonetisation exercise has impacted branch working. “But this has not impacted any other team working alongside. So the merger exercise is on track. We have to receive the Government approval, there are several steps along the...

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ATMs in rural areas are still a far cry

Remember the long queues at bank branches and spending hours to do a simple transaction such as cash withdrawal?Most of you may not, because the advent of ATMs changed that trend a long time ago, providing customers access to money any time. But after the Centre announced the demonetisation scheme a fortnight ago, people in cities and metros were seen queueing up outside ATMs to do a simple cash withdrawal. And this, when over 80 per cent of the 2.15 lakh ATMs as of June 2016 are in metro, urban and semi-urban areas.With only 40,000-odd ATMs...

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