RBI relaxes withdrawal norms, nudges retailers

Mumbai: Nudging retailers such as malls and shop owners to deposit their daily collections with banks, RBI has said they would be allowed to withdraw the deposited sum in Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes, irrespective of the existing withdrawal limits.

The decision is aimed at discouraging hoarding of valid currency notes and increasing its circulation to mitigate cash crunch following the demonetisation of old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.

In a notification, the Reserve Bank of India said it has been reported that "certain depositors are hesitating" to deposit their monies into bank accounts in view of the current limits on cash withdrawals.

"As it is impeding active circulation of currency notes, it has been decided, on careful consideration, to allow withdrawals of deposits made in current legal tender notes on or after November 29, 2016 beyond the current limits," RBI said.

It added that preferably, available higher denominations bank notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 are to be issued for such withdrawals.

People have exchanged and deposited about Rs 8.45 lakh crore worth of scrapped Rs 500/1,000 notes at different banks till November 27 following demonetisation of the high value currency on November 9.

The banks also disbursed over 2.16 lakh crore over the counter and via ATMs from November 10-27. Of this, the exchange of old Rs 500/1000 notes amounted to Rs 33,948 crore and deposits amounted to Rs 8,11,033 crore