K'pong folk rue non acceptance of coins by shops, banks

SNS, KALIMPONG, 18 DECEMBER: Common people in Kalimpong, especially those on the outskirts and in rural areas, have landed in trouble after wholesalers have stopped accepting coins in exchange for goods sold. Making matters worse for the common man, banks too have either stopped accepting coin deposits or have imposed.

Many shops in Kalimpong are not accepting coins ever since the demonetization happened over a year ago. Even if they do, they do it reluctantly and take only a limited amount.

'The wholesalers won't accept the coins, whatever denomination," a small cigarette/paan shop owner said today in Kalimpong town, as he was given Re 5 coins for some cigarettes,

The wholesalers, on the other hand, said the coins keep coming and accumulating, and that banks are not willing to accept them in deposits.

"The vaults of all the banks are overflowing with the coins. We do not know what to do with them now. No one takes coins from the bank, not even the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)," a bank official in the town said.

Interestingly, a brief chit chat with branch managers of banks like State Bank of India (SBI).Central, Axis, IndusInd, HDFC, and Cooperative Bank revealed that the RBI itself is not taking coins from banks.

The branch manager of the SBI Kalimpong, J Mondal, said that it seems people do not need the coins anymore.

'The people don't require the coins. What will banks do about them? Wholesalers are not taking them because they don't need them,' he said. "The Reserve Bank won't take coins and the government knows that the people don't need them, but still they are issu¬ing them. Whats the point in that?" he wondered.

It was later learnt from sources that Mr Mondal's branch has also not been accepting coins from the peo¬ple. 

Some other banks in the town, however, said they had been accepting the coins, but that there were limitations. While one bank said it is taking Rs 5000 as the maximum amount, another said it is taking only Rs 1000 per person. We have to count them manually, and it will take a person an entire day to sit and count the coins," a source at a bank said.

Prabin Pradhan, the Manager of AXIS Bank, said they have been accepting coins, but with a limit of Rs 1000 per person, "even though our vault is full of them."

It is learnt that the RBI had released circular, saying that the banks can collect coins amounting to Rs 1000 per person. However, the SBI here has not been taking the coins for the past six months, citing lack of infrastructure to store them as their "vault, too, is 'overflowing' and the RBI is not clear on what exactly is to be done with the coins."