The new Rs 200 banknotes, which the Reserve Bank of India had said it will bring into circulation on Friday, will not be available at ATMs before next week because manufacturers have not recalibrated the machines yet. “It may take a while before it is available at ATMs as the dimensions are different,” R Gandhi, former deputy governor of the RBI in charge of currency management, told DNA.
A financial software firm told Mint that the cassettes in ATMs – removable boxes that hold the currency – have to be reconfigured to be able to dispense Rs 200 notes. “We still have not received these notes to understand the dimension for the configuration,” said Radha Rama Dorai, managing director of ATM and allied services at FIS Global.
ATMs currently can dispense Rs 100, Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes. The new Rs 200 note will have a dimension of 66 mm × 146 mm.
The first tranche of the new currency will be available at select RBI offices and banks. However, the notes may not be available over the counter on Friday as it is a bank holiday in some parts of the country on account of Ganesh Chaturthi.
On Thursday, the central bank had said that it will introduce Rs 200 notes to “facilitate ease of transactions”. The notes will bear the signature of RBI Governor Urjit Patel and have the motif of the Sanchi Stupa. The bright yellow bill will have other designs, including geometric patterns that align with the overall colour scheme and features for the visually impaired.
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