NAGPUR: Government mints have been tight-fisted this year as far as supplying coins to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is concerned. For the first time in the recent past, mints run by the ministry of finance have supplied just around half of the quantum demanded by the apex bank this year. The RBI, through its various offices in the country, also acts as an agency for supplying coins and currency notes to the public. However, due to a short supply from the mints, RBI's regional offices, including the one at Nagpur, are rationing coin supply. This has left traders unhappy as they have been depending on the RBI counters for coins' supply on an almost daily basis. The unions too had taken up the issue with the management, saying that the rationing has led to inconvenience to the general public. Officials at RBI's central office in Mumbai said the supply has been substantially low. Although not divulging the exact figures on the mismatch between the indented quantity and actual supply, the official, citing the RBI's annual report, said that over 6,000 million pieces of coins are indented each year. However, RBI has got around half of the quantity sought in the current year. In the normal course, the difference is marginal. The fall in supply is being attributed to reasons like lack of capacity coupled with the aging machinery at the mints which are situated Kolkata, Nashik, Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad. An RBI spokesperson said that the coin distribution at the regional offices have been according to the supplies received from the mints. The RBI office at Nagpur, in the meantime, has limited the supply of coins to 100 pieces per person. This has left the traders as well as their agents complaining that they are not getting enough coins. Coin exchange also provides employment to several persons who earn a living by queuing up at the RBI counters to get loose change on behalf of the traders. In turn, they get around Rs 10-15 per 100 coins, earning around Rs 200 a day. Many of them are housewives. The new rule has cut down their earnings now. The union, on the other hand, has alleged that the RBI here has failed to manage the situation. The president of All India RBI Employees Association's local unit Bidyut Chakraborty said, "The management here is diverting the public to commercial banks from where they are being turned away too. If there is a shortage, the RBI's role becomes much more important as it should ensure that the supply is streamlined." A management representative said that if the RBI starts does not adopt the quota system, it may soon run out of the stock of coins.
TOI
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