‘RBI’s new restrictions whimsical and anti-people’

Terming RBI’s fresh restriction on depositing over Rs 5000 in scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes as “whimsical and anti-people”, CPI(M) on Tuesday demanded immediate retraction of the curbs until alternate arrangements are made. “Central government and RBI’s action of imposing fresh curbs on depositing amounts exceeding Rs 5000 in old notes is whimsical and anti-people.

“...CPI(M) demands immediate retraction of these and other restrictions on using and depositing the old tender until alternative arrangements are made,” party Politburo said in a statement.  The Politburo observed that the fresh notification was issued after Centre’s “fraudulent” claim that black money will be eliminated post demonetisation “got exposed” after almost all the notes withdrawn have come back into banking system.

Therefore, the government, which had advised the people not to rush to deposit old notes as there was enough time earlier, now wants to “grill” people on why they have not deposited earlier, it said. “The Central government, to cover up its bungling in implementation of demonetisation and the fiasco of eliminating black money and corruption, is now insinuating that the ordinary people are large scale money launderers,” the Politburo alleged. The RBI had on Monday imposed stiff restrictions on depositing more than Rs 5,000 in scrapped notes, mandating that it can be deposited only once per account till December 30, that too after explaining to bank officials the reasons for not having done that so far.