The Finance Ministry on Sunday review the demonetisation policy rolled out by the government and made a few changes to the existing rules of cash withdrawal from the banks and the ATMs. One big relief for the consumers is that the daily limit of withdrawals of Rs 10000 per day has been scrapped and the weekly withdrawal limit of Rs 20,000 has been hiked to Rs 24,000.
Also, the government has allowed the old currency to be used for utility bills and for essentials till November 24. The issuing of the new series of Rs 500 notes has already begun on Sunday.
Addressing the media on Monday, Economic Affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das assured that the number of recalibrated ATMs will be enhanced within next few days for which a task force has been set up under the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
Das said the task force will also have representatives of the department of financial services and the Ministry of Home Affairs, adding the task force has been instructed to work out a strategy to expedite the whole process of recalibration of the ATMs so that the disbursement of cash at the field level is substantially improved.
The government has also assured that the new Rs 2000 notes will be available from Monday or Tuesday. In the first four days since the old currency was banned, about Rs 3.0 lakh crore bank notes have been deposited in the banking system. Also, nearly Rs 50,000 crore has been dispensed to customers by either withdrawal from their accounts or withdrawal from ATM’s or by exchange at the counter.
Within these four days, the banking system has handled about 18 crore transactions.
RBI has also assured that enough cash is available in the system and there is no need for panic. The situation will ease in the coming days
Meanwhile, the banks been advised to make arrangements for separate queues for Senior citizens and Divyang persons. Separate queues will also be arranged for exchanging cash to cash and transactions against Bank accounts.
