Mumbai: Why chances of getting your salary in hand on payday are 50/50

Payday has never been this depressing Before you rush to an ATM to withdraw your salary consider this Your best chances of finding any cash are 5050 For the last two days ATMs across the country have run dry as there simply isnrsquot enough money to refill the cash machines Normally the first of the month is when ATMs are loaded with cash to meet the heavy demand on payday The 23 lakh ATMs across the country are either refilled by banks or outsourced to cash logistics companies mdash there are only nine of theseAlso Read Banks not accepting pre2005 Rs 1000 notes RBI queues to get longerThis time however the cash crunch from the demonetisation means even the banks and refilling companies donrsquot have the money to load all ATMsExpect to see such scenes at ATMs as cash becomes scarcer in the coming daysLess than half refilledmidday spoke to a top official from one of the cash logistics companies who said ldquoThe loading of cash has dropped by over 50 across the country We cater to nearly 20000 ATMs all over India Normally we load 10500 of these on a daily basis with cash ranging from R3 lakh to R20 lakh During the salary period we would load cash in at least 12000 ATMs for public convenience However in the last two days we have managed to load cash in only 4500 ATMs Even the volume of cash has fallen by over 50rdquoCanrsquot bank on ATMsAnother official who oversees the western region Maharashtra Gujarat Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan and Goa said ldquoThere are 998 ATMs in Mumbai Thane Navi Mumbai We always try to ensure that these have adequate cash supply for during the salary cycle which starts from the 28th of a month to the 10th of the following month But this time banks donrsquot even have enough money to cover overthecounter withdrawals so from where will they give money for the ATMsrdquoRead Story How safe is our precious money in the cash vansHe recalled an incident when a bank had sent money to be refilled in the ATMs but then asked for it to be returned because the cash counters at the bankrsquos branches had fallen short of currencyldquoA nationalised bank had called our team to collect R4 crore from their cash collection point and distribute it across their ATMs Just minutes after the loaded cash van left the place we were instructed to return the cash and we could not reload any of the bankrsquos ATMsrdquoUsually most of these outsourced companies stock hundreds of crores in their own vaults to make the ATM refilling process smoother Today however even these vaults are empty as they were directed to return all the cash soon after the prime minister announced the demonetisation drive midday spoke to one such company that alone returned over Rs 1000 crore from the 60 vaults they hadWhen contacted Rituraj Sinha president of the Cash Logistics Association preferred not to make any comment on the matterSlow recoveryWhile the demonetisation or Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes sucked most of the cash out of the economy the currency crunch is being aggravated further because everybody is withdrawing but nobody is depositing the new currencyldquoThis means there is very little liquid cash in circulation and even less of it is reaching the banks Add to that the new Rs 500 notes have still not been issued in adequate numbers It might take a month before the situation is regularisedrdquo said Udit Kariwala an analyst from India RatingsHe further added ldquoThe need of the cash however is far more urgent in rural India which is still a cash economy At least in urban areas people still have the option of going cashlessrdquo