Almost 3 months post the drastic move by the BJP government to demonetise currency notes of Rs 500 and 1000 was implemented, Economics Affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das has assured that remonetisation exercise is nearly complete and RBI will soon decide on lifting the weekly withdrawal limits for savings accounts too.
"Only a few withdraw Rs 1 lakh a month. Therefore, effectively and practically today, there is no restriction. I think the process of remonetisation is near-complete. I am using the word near-complete because this Rs 24,000 limit is there," he said.
He further said that currency supply and management are RBI's responsibility and the central bank will take a call in the near future on lifting the only remaining restriction, which is weekly withdrawal of Rs 24,000 from a savings bank account. This (removal of withdrawal limit) is also a matter of time," he told PTI.
Advertisement
This comes in the wake of RBI's latest update on January 31, removing cash withdrawal limits from ATMs from current accounts. The withdrawal limit on savings accounts were, however, fixed at Rs 24,000 per week.
Das said the remonetisation process has reached near completion in less than 90 days of announcement of the demonetisation by the Prime Minister on November 8.
"In less than 90 days, the whole process of remonetisation is almost complete. This speaks volumes about the way the remonetisation has been completed," he said.
Advertisement
The central bank also promised to review the weekly limit in the near future depending on the pace of remonetisation.
The government and RBI had imposed limits on withdrawal of money from ATMs and bank branches in view of currency shortage following the cash ban.
These limits, however, were gradually eased, with RBI pumping in new notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000.
In the wake of demonetisation, RBI had put withdrawal limit Rs 2,000 per day from ATMs and Rs 10,000 per week. Customers holding current or overdraft or cash credit accounts were allowed to withdraw up to Rs 50,000 in a week.
Towards November end, RBI increased the cap on savings bank withdrawals to Rs 24,000 a week.
Early January, it was further relaxed to Rs 4,500 per day from ATMs, but retained the weekly withdrawal limits. On January 16, RBI enhanced the ATM withdrawals further to Rs 10,000 daily, while keeping the weekly limits at Rs 24,000.
The central bank also enhanced the limit on withdrawal from current accounts, overdraft and cash credit accounts to Rs 1,00,000 per week.
The demonetisation move on November 8 sucked out 86% of the currency in circulation, leading to a massive cash crunch and widespread protests by opposition.
Advertisement
(With inputs from PTI)
