Facing the Opposition’s ire and expressing concerns over the cash starved nation, the Centre has made several new announcements to ease up the currency demonetisation fiasco.
Keeping the Monday Bank holiday in mind, the centre on Sunday announced an increase in withdrawal limits at banks and ATMs.
The government also urged the states to “facilitate the opening of new bank accounts” and last-mile distribution of small denomination notes as it announced that the new Rs 500 note had been issued.
As a matter of relief, the weekly limit of Rs 20,000 for withdrawal from bank accounts has been increased to Rs 24,000. The limit of Rs 10,000 per day has been removed.
The daily withdrawal from ATMs has now been hiked to Rs 2,500 from Rs 2,000 and from bank counters to Rs 4,500 from Rs 4,000.
The government also announced that the banks would remain shut on Monday in several states on account of Guru Nanak Jayanti, but ATMs would be open for public usage.
According to several media reports, banks in eight states would be open for transactions. Branches in eight states — Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, and Haryana — will be open for transactions on Monday.
Adding a new glitz to the cash draught situation , new series of Rs 500 note has been been revealed. However, ATMs are not able to dispense it, as they will have to be re-calibrated to do so. This might take up to three weeks.
The government also plans to soon reintroduce the Rs 1,000 note back in the market, but with far more evolved security features.
Guidelines have also been issued that old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will continue to be accepted at government hospitals, petrol stations and toll booths till November 24.
In addition to this, banks were also asked to make arrangements for separate queues for senior citizens and differently-abled people. Separate queues will also be arranged for converting old notes to cash over the counter and transactions against bank accounts.
The last date for submission of the annual life certificate for government pensioners, which is to be submitted in November every year, has also been extended to January 15, 2017.
Addressing a public rally in Goa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an impassioned plea to citizens to give him until December 30 to weed out the ill-gotten wealth in India.
Modi held a meeting with senior ministers in the early hours of Monday to review demonetisation and its impact. The meeting came amid continuing chaos and growing public anger across the country over limited cash availability following the surprise demonetisation of two higher value currency notes by Modi.
Protesting against the mismanagement pertaining to the note demonetisation issue, all India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) on Monday asked the IBA to provide additional infrastructure like more terminals to be provided to branches handling heavy cash to detect fake notes as this problem is aggravated in the current process.
