‘Move to weed out black money’

Soon after the  Modi-led NDA government on Tuesday banned currency notes in the denomination of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500, Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das termed it a very bold step.

Supporting the move, Patel said, “The decision has been taken keeping in mind security of the nation as black money was being used for terrorist activities in India. The RBI is ready to handle the situation.”

While Das appealed to people to not go and exchange other people’s cash. “All banks will have 24/7 CCTV cameras that will monitor exchange of cash. The banks have also been directed to keep a record of all transactions and intimate the same to Income Tax department.”

In reply to a question on how long it would take for the situation to normalise normal, Das said, “It will take about 20 days for the situation to get normal. 

The government has put restrictions on withdrawal as one can withdraw only Rs 10,000 cash in a day and total withdrawal in a week cannot exceed Rs 20,000.” On the issue of depositing Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes, Das said that one can deposit any number of amount in his/her own account in a day, but for third party transactions there are restrictions of Rs 4,000 in a day.

He further said that additional counters at all banks, post offices will be opened for exchange of notes. “It will not affect wholesale market as new notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 will be introduced in market from Thursday. At present there are 16.5 billion notes of Rs 500 denomination and 6.7 billion notes of Rs 1,000 denomination are in circulation,” he said.