It was business as usual at most bank branches across Telangana as a nationwide window for exchanging ₹2,000 denomination notes that are being withdrawn by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) began on Tuesday.
Customer footfall as anticipated was more than usual, but not as much for exchange as for depositing the notes into bank accounts. The deposits had picked steam ever since the RBI announcement on May 19, officials of public, private and regional rural banks pointed out, adding some customers were also using cash deposit machines.
High net-worth individuals, those dealing in realty, businessmen, liquor outlets, petrol bunks, fertilizer shops, farmers with large land holding primarily were among those who opted to deposit, ostensibly because there was no limit on such remittances. While a maximum of 10 notes of ₹2,000 denomination can be exchanged at a time, technically it was possible for customers to do more since banks were not asking them to produce any proof of identity or even share their mobile numbers, sources said.
