Ever wondered how many ATMs are there in India? Take a guess

The finance ministry has told Parliament that the number of ATMs across the country stands at over 2.13 lakh, as of September-end.

More than 47 per cent of the ATMs are in rural and semi-urban areas, the ministry said on Monday.

“According to RBI data, scheduled commercial banks have installed 2,13,145 ATMs (automated teller machines) up to September 2021. In addition to this, 27,837 White Label ATMs (WLA) were also installed by WLA operators up to September 2021,” Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

“Of these, 47.4 per cent of ATMs are installed in rural and semi-urban centres,” Karad said.

To a question on the target to install ATMs by 2022, Karad said the RBI has apprised that WLA operators are required to deploy a minimum of 1,000 ATMs every year, and to maintain a deployment ratio of 1:2:3 for metro and urban, semi-urban and rural regions, respectively.

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Karad said that the WLA scheme was introduced as an extended delivery channel for banking services, especially in tier III and VI centres.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha that India currently has the fourth largest foreign exchange reserves in the world.

The forex reserves stood at USD 640.4 billion as on November 19, 2021, according to the minister.

Replying to another question, Chaudhary said details of the holders of P-Notes/offshore derivative instruments (ODIs) as well as beneficial owners of holders of ODIs, identified in terms of Rule 9 of the Prevention of Money laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, are reported to the SEBI on a monthly basis by ODI issuing foreign portfolio investors (FPIs).

“Further, ODIs issuing FPIs are required to maintain with them at all times the KYC documents regarding ODI subscribers and make them available to SEBI on demand,” Chaudhary said.

In reply to another question, Chaudhary said the total excise duty, including cesses collected from petroleum products, during the past seven financial years (2014-15 to 2020-21) stood at about ₹16.7 lakh crore.

“The total central excise duty on unbranded petrol was ₹9.2 per litre in 2013-14, while that on unbranded diesel was ₹3.46 per litre. At present, the total central excise duty on unbranded petrol is ₹27.9 per litre and that on unbranded diesel is ₹21.80 per litre,” Chaudhary said.

Also read: GST collection shoots to ₹1.31 lakh cr in Nov, second highest since rollout

The minister said that excise duty rates on petrol and diesel have been calibrated to generate resources for infrastructure and other developmental items of expenditure, keeping in view the prevalent fiscal situation.

(With inputs from Agencies)