Remonetisation has not solved currency shortage: FM Thomas Isaac

Thiruvananthapuram: The State government Tuesday said the remonetisation process of the Centre has not resolved the currency shortage felt in the state and demanded that the union government correct its policy.

Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac while replying to a calling attention on the matter in the assembly said Kerala would take up the currency shortage issue with the Centre in the coming GST council meeting.

"We will discuss the issue with Finance Ministers of other states and will take it up strongly with the Centre', he said.

Stating that remonetisation has not solved the note crisis,he said it was continuing even after five months,though the Centre promised that currency crunch would be over by 50 days after demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes on November 8 last year.

Isaac attributed note hoarding as one of the reasons for the present shortage. Banks complaints that they were not getting adequate cash from RBI, he said.

Taking up the issue, Parakkal Abdulla (IUML) brought to the notice of the house the empty ATMs in the state and said about 40 per cent of the more than 9,000 ATMs were not functioning due to nonavailability of currency.