BYE BYE BLACK MONEY

The sudden surgical strike on the five hundred and one thousand rupees currency denominations has gathered the entire nation’s attention. On Tuesday, the 7^th of November, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the five hundred and one thousand rupees currency as invalid for transactions, starting from midnight, that is the 8^th of November, 2016. From midnight of November 8, 2016, the five hundred and one thousand rupees will cease to be legal tender. “These notes are just papers from tomorrow,” said the Prime Minister.

The key points of this attack on black money, fake currency and corruption include the following:

1. Currency notes of Five hundred and one thousand rupees denominations will not be considered legal tender from the 9^th of November.

2. New notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 would be released and circulated from the 10^th of November.

3. Since this will take time to be executed properly, all banks and post offices will remain closed on the 9^th of November. Cashless fund transfer or electronic transactions will not be affected by this. ATMs will also not work on the 9^th of November and at some places on the 10^th of November as well.In the first few days, there will be a limit of two thousand rupees per day per card. This limit will be raised to four thousand rupees later.

4. People carrying old notes of five hundred or one thousand rupees can deposit these notes in their bank or post office accounts from the 10^th of November till close of banking hours on the 30^th of December, 2016 without any limit.For the immediate need of cash, the people may go to any bank, head post office or sub post office, show the identity proof, like Aadhaar card, voter card, ration card, passport, PAN card or other approved ID proofs, and exchange the old five hundred or thousand rupee notes for new notes. “The people will have fifty days to deposit and exchange the notes, so there is no need for panic”, declared the Prime minister.

5. There may be some people, who, for some reason, will not be able to deposit their old five hundred and one thousand rupees notes by the 30th of December, 2016. They can go to specified offices of the Reserve Bank of India with their ID proofs up to 31st March 2017 and deposit the notes after submitting a declaration form.

The exchange facility will be available at all Issue Offices of RBI and branches of commercial banks/RRBS/UCBs/State Co-op banks or at any Head Post Office or Sub-Post Office. From the 10^th of November till the 24^th of November the limit for such exchange will be four thousand rupees. From the 25^th of November till the 30^th of December, the limit will be increased.

To reduce the hardship to the citizens, for the initial 72 hours, government hospitals and the pharmacies will accept the old five hundred and one thousand rupees notes till the 11^th of November, midnight. The Prime Minister declared that “the rights and interests of the honest, hardworking people will be fully protected”. This step aims to strengthen the hands of the common man in the fight against corruption and terrorism.The misuse of cash has led to artificial increase in the cost of goods and services like houses, land, and higher education, health care and so on.High circulation of cash also strengthens the hawala trade which is directly linked to black money and illegal trade in weapons.Terrorists run their operations using fake currency notes. This has been going on for years. Many times, those using fake five hundred and thousand rupee notes have been caught and many such notes have been seized. By the demonetization of the old currency, the people using counterfeit currency will have no option but to give it up.

The Prime Minister requested the citizens’ contribution and said, “We again have an opportunity where every citizen can join this ‘mahayajn’a against the ills of corruption, black money and fake notes. The more help you give in this campaign, the more successful it will be.”

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