No ATM to be replenished with cash after 9 pm from next year

New Delhi: No ATM will be restocked with cash after 9 pm in cities and 6 pm in rural areas from next year even as two armed guards will accompany crisp notes in transit as per a new directive issued by the Home Ministry.

The deadline for putting money in the ATMs located in Naxal-hit areas is 4 pm while private cash handling agencies must collect money from the banks in the first half of the day and transport notes only in armoured vehicles.

In a notification, the Home Ministry said the new Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) would come into effect from February 8, 2019, given the spurt in incidents of attacks on cash vans, cash vaults, ATM frauds and other internal frauds leading to an increased sense of insecurity.

There are over 8,000 privately owned cash vans plying across the country, operated by non-bank private agencies, and they handle over Rs 15,000 crore daily on behalf of banks.

Sometimes, the private agencies keep currency overnight at their cash vaults.

"No cash loading of the ATMs or cash transportation activities shall be done after 9 pm in urban areas, after 6 pm in rural areas and before 9 am or after 4 pm in the districts notified by the central government as Left Wing Extremism affected areas," the notification said.

The agencies shall provide private security for the cash transportation with the requisite number of trained staff; every cash van shall have one driver, two armed security guards, two ATM officers or custodians.

One armed guard must sit in the front along with the driver and another in the rear portion of the van while in transit.

Every cash transportation shall be carried out only in secured cash vans fitted with a GPS tracking device, and it must be ensured that no cash van carries cash of more than Rs 5 crore per trip.