Spike in bank deposits in September due to 7th Pay Commission arrears: FM
New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said there was a spike in bank deposits only in September during the last one year, largely due to the 7th Pay Commission arrears being released in August.
The FM was addressing a press conference here on the current demonetization move.
The 4.8 million central government employees and 5.2 million pensioners got theirs arrears of basic pay and pension arising from implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations in one go in August salaries and pension respectively. The hike in basic pay and pension has been made effective from January 1, 2016.
Jaitley said it is a massive operation to replace 86 per cent of currency under circulation. The SBI alone had done Rs 2.28 crore transactions in the past two days; the total banking transactions were around five times of that, he added.
The minister said the SBI alone had got Rs 47,868 crore deposits in the past two days; total deposits in all the banks must be around Rs 2 lakh crore to Rs 2.25 lakh crore, he added.
The RBI bank currency chests numbering 4,000 had enough currency stocks, Jaitley assured.
The Finance Minister appealed to the people to stagger depositing the defunct currency and not to crowd the banks.
He said it would take two to three weeks to re-calibrate two lakh ATMs to vend out new Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes.
He said stock details had been sought from jewellers on reports of dealings in defunct currency, adding that the government would not allow any illegal transaction in bullion.
He said the supposed chip in the Rs 2,000 note and digital lockers were mere rumours.
Inputs with PTI
Leave a Reply