Won’t just go away

​New Delhi: Appealing to the people to be patient, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday that it would take time for banks to make changes to ATMs to dispense new banknotes as millions of people lined up at branches to get cash.

He said around Rs 2 lakh crore has been deposited till 12.15 pm on Saturday in banks across the country, following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. "The largest banker in the country SBI saw deposits of Rs 47,868 crore till Saturday afternoon," Jaitley said while briefing the media here. He said SBI's deposits are around 20 per cent of the total deposits in all the banks in the country.

Jaitley also rubbished allegations that deposits had spiked before the demonetisation announcement as some parties had been informed beforehand. He said ATMs had not been calibrated before the announcement to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to maintain secrecy. “It is a massive operation, it will take time.”

Jaitley said it could take two to three weeks for all ATMs across the country to recalibrated to be able to dispense the new Rs 2000 notes. Till then, ATMs that have not been re-calibrated will continue to dispense Rs 100 notes.

The Finance Minister said the crowd at banks over the past few days has been hundreds of times larger than the number of people who visit the banks for regular business. "There are Rs 14 lakh crore in circulation. We knew at the outset that the replacement of this much currency cannot happen overnight. There is enough cash to meet all needs now. It is a massive operation, and it has only begun," he said.

"The recalibration could not be done before the announcement, in view of the secrecy that was required till the Cabinet decision was made. If we had started the process of recalibration before, we would have risked a leak of the information, which would have rendered the whole exercise pointless," said Jaitley, in response to questions over why the ATMs could not have been prepared beforehand.

"The idea of this demonetisation is to bring money into the banking system, so it can become part of the banking system. Till now, SBI has exchanged currency for 58 lakh individuals. 33 lakh people have withdrawn. Deposits are much higher," he said.

Jaitley also addressed the politicking over the move. "Many different kinds of political reactions have come in. Some of them have been irresponsible. The effort to clean up politics is causing inconvenience to some," he said.

He then responded to allegations made earlier in the day by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal. The Delhi CM had claimed that deposits had risen in the July-September quarters after successive quarters of decline, as the PM had informed his friends before making the announcement so they could save their money.

"One irresponsible statement said some might have had prior information as July-September deposits have grown. Deposits have spiked only in one month, in September. And that was because Pay Commission arrears were released between August 31 and September 15. All the rest has been consistent. But on this, a conspiracy theory has been created," Jaitley said.

He bunched allegations of this nature with the rumours of a salt shortage that led to panic buying in parts of Uttar Pradesh. Jaitley also repeated the assurance that only those whose money is not clean have something to worry about. He rubbished allegations that all transactions are being monitored and said only cases with strong intelligence inputs are being monitored.