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 9th of November.
2. New
notes of Rs 500
and Rs 2,000 would be released and
circulated from the 10th of November.
3. Since this will take time to
be executed properly, all banks and post offices will remain closed on the 9th
of November. Cashless fund transfer or electronic transactions will not be
affected by this. ATMs will also not work on the 9th of November and
at some places on the 10th 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 10th of November till close of banking
hours on the 30th 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.
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 11th 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.”
