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Kathmandu Tuesday October 23, 2001 Kartik 07, 2058.
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Depositors throng banks for withdrawal
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Oct 22 – As the commercial banks closed their
operation for the Dashain festival today, thousands of people thronged the banking
institutions to withdraw their accounts.
Depositors seeking to withdraw their deposited money could be
seen standing in long queues at the banks’ counters. And most of the banks today
remained busy throughout the day in meeting the demand of customers.
And as usual, customers lamented over the poor service
delivery by the banks. Long queues, inadequate number of counters to pay and mismanagement
has been at the firing end of customers since long.
"Poor infrastructure, compounded by mismanagement even
at the joint venture banks, has made it difficult to get prompt service. It is something
that banks need to ponder over," said a customer found standing in a queue at the
branch office of the Himalayan Bank Ltd. at Pulchowk.
But what has come as interesting to note is the heightened
demand for money this year. Though this phenomena is usual during the onset of the
greatest Hindu festival each year, the withdrawals from the commercial banks this year is
much higher that that of the previous years.
Banking officials say that money supply this Dashain is
almost double than that of the same period last year. According to Upendra Kesari Poudel,
Acting Director at the Note Department, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), "The money supply to
the market this Dashain has increased tremendously."
He informed The Kathmandu Post that total withdrawals this
festival has gone up to around Rs 4 billion, up from around Rs 1.5 billion last year. The
commercial banks alone demanded over Rs 500 million from the NRB to meet the heightened
demand of the depositors.
In addition to the increased withdrawals, people are flocking
the banks in thousands for exchanging money of higher denominations to lower
denominations. The denominations that have been in high demand for the past few days are
in the range of Re 1 to Rs 50.
However, customers lamented that they did not get notes in
lower denominations as per demand. "I went to one of the banks to exchange money for
lower denominations. But they did not provide me with Re 1, Rs 2 and Rs 5 notes,"
said Manoj Sharma from Sanepa.
The usual increased spending of the general mass during the
Dashain festivals is the prime cause for increased withdrawals from the banks. "We
have withdrawn a substantial amount of our deposits to shop for the Dashain
festivals," said Rajesh Shrestha, found browsing in New Road.
On the other hand, the rise in the demand for money in lower
denominations is, as usual, to donate money (give dakshina) during the festivals. However,
the increased demand for money in lower denominations may also point to the intention of
people to gamble more.
And this is justified by the fact that many people this time
have not gone to their native towns and villages in the light of increased security
threats. Says Rajendra Ghimire of Rolpa, who in the capital for the past six years,
"I am not going anywhere this Dashain since violence is on the rise. I intend to
spend my days in Kathmandu itself."
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