4 Successive bank holidays, ATMs may run out of cash
Posted on: 27/Mar/2018 12:05:03 PM
As the banks are scheduled to be closed for 4 successive holidays starting the day-after-tomorrow (Thursday, 29th March), it is expected that the public, as well as organizations, will encounter severe difficulties in carrying out financial transactions.
Mahavir Jayanthi falls on Thursday, 29th March. Good Friday is on 30th March. There are 2 subsequent weekly holidays on Saturday and Sunday.
31st March happens to be the accounts closing day for the banks and hence the state government of Tamil Nadu had declared 1st April as a holiday. As this happens to be a Sunday, the Reserve Bank of India sent a letter to the Tamil Nadu state government to declare 2nd April (Monday) as a holiday.
The state government of Tamil Nadu accepted this request and has declared 2nd April as a holiday for all the commercial establishments and the cooperative banks.
In other times these successive holidays tend to fall during the 2nd or the 3rd week of the month when the public would have money on hand from their salaries and hence cash flow would not be affected that severely.
However, this time, these 4 successive holidays fall on the month end, when the public would be severely short of cash. With the holidays, they are likely to encounter severe hardships for the shortage of cash.
Though 31st March is a bank working day, it is widely expected that the bank activities would almost come to a standstill between 29th March and 2nd April. This is due to the fact that 31st March falls on a Saturday which is government holiday and most other institutions are closed as well.
So, the organizations cannot deposit the employee salaries during this period. So, the employee may have to wait until 3rd April to receive their salaries.
The bank officials explained that Normally, a minimum amount of Rs. 3 lakhs is deposited in the ATMs daily (In Chennai Metro City, it is Rs. 10 Lakhs per ATM). In some ATMs, a maximum of Rs. 20 Lakhs is deposited. This cash is withdrawn by the customers in a single day itself. As 4 successive holidays are coming, it is quite possible that all the ATM money will be fully withdrawn by the 1st two holidays on 29th and 30th March. As the ATMs would not be filled with money on the subsequent days, a widespread shortage of cash is likely to occur. Hence, the customers are advised to plan their cash requirements accordingly.’
