Cash situation is back to normal, says Jaitley

New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley said that the currency situation has stabilised to a great extent but did not give any indication on lifting curbs on cash withdrawal from banks and ATMs though the 50-day window of demonetisation ended on Friday.

“RBI has sufficient stock to inject a lot more currency which they will continue. Yesterday, I had gone around Delhi and we are getting reports from all over the country the crowds at the banks have eased significantly,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a surprise announcement on November 8 declared the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes invalid. While RBI will continue remonetisation exercise which is market driven depending on how much currency it will require.

“RBI keeps in releasing that money. There are three categories. One, legitimate currency which continues to be a legal tender... The second category is that Rs 500/2,000 notes are being added every day by the RBI. There is third category which is not new currency, but with effect from tomorrow the entire currency in recirculation will be the legitimate permissible currency,” he said. Mr Jaitley further said that from December 31 onwards banks will have only valid currencies.

On Friday, RBI has asked banks to report details of deposits of old notes to it after the close of banking hours and deposit the same at any issue office of the Reserve Bank or a currency chest by Saturday itself. RBI said the old notes “cannot form part of banks’ cash balances from the close of business as on December 31, 2016”.

When asked when the cap on withdrawal limit would be lifted, Mr Jaitley said “please wait. When we decide we will let you know.”

RBI directed banks to put a withdrawal ceiling of Rs 24,000 per account in a week and the withdrawal from ATMs have been limited to Rs 2,500 per day.