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With hardly 12 days for the deadline to deposit demonetised currency notes, the RBI has come out with yet another circular, placing more restrictions.
From now till December 30, deposits of more than ₹5,000 in the scrapped ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes will be accepted only once and that too after bank officials get a ‘satisfactory explanation’ from the depositor on why it was not done earlier. Simultaneously, the RBI said it is “encouraging” deposits of the old notes under the Taxation and Investment Regime for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), 2016
Bankers say the latest RBI circular probably betrays the government’s anxiety that most of the old bank notes are coming back as deposits, thereby jeopardising one of the main planks of the demonetisation drive — rooting out black money.
They feel the RBI wants bankers to question the depositors so that those with undisclosed income will be pushed towards putting their money into the PMGKY, where they will not be subjected to such scrutiny. Since the demonetisation announcement on November 8, the RBI has issued about 50 circulars.
According to the latest RBI circular, the depositor’s explanation should be kept on record to facilitate an audit trail later.
Banks will also have to ensure that full value of tenders of old notes in excess of ₹5,000 should be credited to only KYC (know-your-customer) compliant accounts.
If the accounts are not KYC compliant, credits may be restricted up to ₹50,000, subject to the conditions governing the conduct of such accounts.
A banker said, “We have been grappling with a huge number of RBI circulars day in and day out since November 8.
“Now, this latest circular adds to our workload related to demonetisation. To maintain so many records will be a big hassle.”
Till last count (December 10, 2016), the old high-value bank notes (₹500 and ₹1,000) aggregating ₹12.44 lakh crore were returned to the RBI and currency chests.
The total value of these notes in circulation, as per RBI’s last annual report, amounted to about ₹14.18 lakh crore.
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