Govt allows deposit of banned notes in post office saving accounts
24 Nov 2016 11:31 PM GMT
Giving a short term relief to saving account holders of India Post, the Finance Ministry has on Wednesday allowed post offices to accept now-invalid Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination currency notes. The fresh order is in the light of ministry’s earlier decision of banning deposits of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in small savings schemes.
“...the deposits into Post Office Savings Account are excluded from the bar imposed (on deposits of invalid notes in small saving schemes,” it said while clarifying earlier statement.
The order clearly stated that old currency notes can only be deposited in Post Office Saving accounts and not in other accounts like RD, TD, Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA), Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (SCSS), Public Provident Fund (PPF), Kisan Vikas Patra, National Saving Certificate, etc.
“If account holders of small saving schemes like SSA, KVS, etc want to deposit any amount in it, they can deposit the same either by using a cheque or by depositing new currency notes as well notes in the denominations of Rs 100, Rs 50, etc, but not now-defunct currency notes of Rs 500 or Rs 1,000,” a senior official said.
A Post Office Savings Account offers interest of 4 per cent per annum on individual or joint accounts. Such accounts can be opened with an amount as low as Rs 20. Minimum balance to be maintained in a non-cheque facility account is Rs 50. Cheque facility is available if an account is opened with Rs 500 and a minimum balance of Rs 500 is to be maintained.
Govt asks NABARD to disburse Rs 21k crore to farmers
Government has allowed NABARD to disburse Rs 21,000 crore to cash-starved farmers, helping them sow winter crops like wheat ahead of the sowing season, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said on Wednesday.
The government’s demonetisation move, which swept away 86 per cent of currency in circulation, has badly hit farmers leaving them without cash just ahead of the sowing season. Das said the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will disburse the money to farm cooperatives for onward payments to farmers.
“NABARD, for the facility of agricultural operations in the current rabi season and especially for the benefit of farmers, has sanctioned a special limit of Rs 21,000 crore to district central cooperative banks,” he told reporters here.
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