RBI relief to farmers, borrowers

In view of cash crunch being faced by borrowers, the RBI provided additional 60 days for repayment of housing, car, farm and other loans worth up to Rs 1 crore. This is applicable to loans payable between Nov 1 and Dec 31, the RBI said in a notification. The above relaxation is available to entities running working capital accounts with any bank with the sanctioned limit of Rs 1 crore or less. Term loans, whether business or personal, secured or otherwise, the original sanctioned amount of Rs 1 crore or less, on the books of any bank or any NBFC, including NBFC (MFI), would also get benefit of this relaxation. This will also include housing and farm loans. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry on Monday permitted farmers to use old Rs 500 notes for purchasing seeds from any government outlet and agricultural universities. 

Farmers can purchase seeds using Rs 500 notes from all government recognised outlets on production of proof of identity, the finance ministry said in a statement. Besides, the government has also extended the deadline for payment of crop insurance premium by 15 days and permitted APMC-registered traders to withdraw up to Rs 50,000 per week. In a separate disclosure, the RBI claimed that people have exchanged and deposited over Rs 5.44 lakh crore worth of scrapped Rs 500/1,000 notes at different banks till November 18. The banks also disbursed Rs 1,03,316 crore over the counter and via ATMs between Nov 10 and 18, the RBI statement said.

Almost a fortnight after the demonetisation, agitated members of the public continued to protest in the city condemning the closure of ATMs and the inability of banks to exchange their invalidated currency notes.

Despite assurances by the Centre and the RBI that adequate cash was being sent to the city, most ATMs continued to remain shut and those that were functional could disburse only in multiples of Rs 2000. The manager of a nationalised bank in Nungambakkam said, “Since we started marking ink on finger, the number of visitors dropped to a manageable level. On the other side, we are seeing an increase in deposits. The cash deposit sometimes goes beyond the daily limit permissible – so we had to divert it to other branches.” Regarding the ATMs, the manager added, “Since most of the ATMs are outsourced, it depends. But soon, they will become functional.” Bank officials are confident that normalcy will return over the next few days.