Several banks across the country have reportedly still not cleared dues, amounting to Rs 110 crore, for services provided by cash logistics firms during the demonetisation drive, The Indian Express reported. The companies were hired to re-caliberate Automatic Teller Machines and retrieve banned currency notes after the Centre announced its demonetisation drive on November 8.
Officials told the English daily that while ICICI, HDFC and Axis have paid their bills, 90% of banks have questioned the cost incurred by the firms between November 10 and December 30, 2016. Quoting unidentified officials, the report said some institutions have delayed clearing their dues because they were under the impression that the companies were offering the services in national interest.
“Our boys have worked day and night for several days during demonetisation but now that the job is over, the banks are not very accommodating,” said N S G Rao, secretary general, Cash Logistics Association of India. “We were called in by the Reserve Bank of India panel to help and we did exactly that but now the banks do not want to pay us for the work we did.”
State Bank of India said that it had not received any bills from its managed service providers who assign the task of refilling cash to the firms. Officials told the English daily that the Finance Ministry had asked them to pay Rs 4,000 per ATM, but that the actual cost amounts to Rs 5,615 per ATM.
Rao, however, said that all cash logistic firms have submitted their bills for demonetisation services to the managed service providers concerned.
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