After the recent demonetisation of higher value notes, Visakhapatnam has witnessed a deposit of around Rs 954 crore in various banks since November 10.
Deposits are expected go up in the coming days and while banks need at least Rs 60 crore per day for daily transactions, they need to keep the money available for people to either withdraw or exchange.
In the past four days, nearly Rs 303 crore has been reportedly either withdrawn or exchanged in the district.
It was reported that criminal cases will be booked against hospitals and petrol pumps if they refuse to accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Special teams have been kept ready for surprise checks on hospitals and petrol pumps.
There are a total of 1,104 ATMs across the district, but only 50 per cent are dispensing cash.
“Bankers are giving Rs 2,000 notes easily but imposing restrictions on Rs 100 and Rs 50 notes. We are expecting the situation to ease in another 48 hours as we are expecting such notes in the coming days. We have also advised the banks not to show discrimination towards rural tracts and supply to the rural branches on par with urban areas,” Pravin Kumar, Collector, told Deccan Chronicle.
However, those with black money are reportedly converting it into gold. On November 8, black money worth Rs 50 crore was reportedly converted into gold in Visakhapatnam. This was revealed during the raids conducted by IT department on jewellers in the last four days.
Income Tax sleuths have been keeping track of transactions by high profile businessmen whose net worth is more than Rs 100 crore and expect around Rs 500 crore of unaccounted cash in the city.
“We are surprised to know just one merchant had sold around Rs 9 crore worth gold and jewellery on that night. Cleverly, they billed the purchases less than Rs 2 lakh so that PAN card details need not be entered to hoodwink us. We collected details those who purchase gold on that night and we may raid them,” a senior officials in the department told Deccan Chronicle.
It was reported that sources in the IT department will be conducting raids on stash holders after December 31.