Mysuru: A severe cash crunch has left a majority of the ATMs in Mysuru bereft of notes for the last few days and ‘No cash’ or ‘ATM under repair’ signage are back to haunt customers.

Though a cash crunch was perceived last month, the full impact of it is being felt of late with many ATMs running out of currency quickly.

A senior banking official told The Hindu on the condition of anonymity that there were about 733 ATMs in Mysuru district and each machine is normally replenished with Rs. 20 lakh. This works out to nearly Rs. 15 crore per day. However, there was a decline in currency supply from the RBI in Bengaluru and hence the ATMs were fast running out of cash here. An SBI ATM on the Jayalakshmi Vilas Road has remained shut for two weeks. The security personnel do not remember when the ATM was last replenished.

“As against loading Rs. 20 lakh per machine, the banks are forced to ration the available notes depending on the rate of withdrawal and the location of the ATM, and hence load 40-50% of its actual capacity resulting in the machines running out of cash,” said the official and added that at a recent meeting of the officials of various public sector banks, this issue came to the fore. It was said that currency shortage was uniform across all banks and was not confined to ATMs of any specific financial institution.

The RBI, Bengaluru, supplies cash and is routed to the currency chests of the major banks in the district. There are 13 currency chests belonging to various banks, of which 8 belong to the State Bank of India.

The remittance to each currency chest is not only based on the usage but also cash availability. “The details of available cash is available with the RBI and is updated on a real-time basis. The supply is based on this data,” according to the official.

Bank officials remain tight-lipped about when the situation will ease.