Modi government has given us 60 nervous breakdowns in demonetisation flip-flops
On December 20, the BJP “warned” Rahul Gandhi against making any “personalised comments” on the prime minister after the Congress vice-president tweeted that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was changing rules as frequently as Prime Minister Narendra Modi changes his clothes.
A day later, the Central bank has given Gandhi another chance to mock Modi by amending its December 19 notification.
It has now decided to allow deposits above Rs 5,000 in KYC-compliant accounts. Also, now more than one deposits even if above Rs 5,000 can be made in KYC-compliant accounts.
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| A screenshot of RBI's December 21 notification. (Credit: RBI website) |
This happens to be RBI's 60th notification after the government's demonetisation announcement 43 days ago (November 8).
What does the RBI's December 19 notification say?
Tenders of SBNs in excess of Rs 5,000 into a bank account will be received for credit only once during the remaining period till December 30, 2016.
Credit in such cases shall be allowed only after questioning a tenderer, on record, in presence of at least two bank officials (as to why this could not be deposited earlier) and receiving a satisfactory explanation. The explanation should be kept on record to facilitate an audit trail at a later stage.
An appropriate flag also should be raised in core banking system (CBS) to that effect so that no more tenders are allowed.
What PM said on November 8?
The December 19 notification raised several questions. What happened to the government's repeated advisories to the people — not to panic and rush to banks to deposit old currency as they have time till December 30 to do so?
He said, “Persons holding old notes of Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 can deposit these notes in their bank or post office accounts from November 10 till close of banking hours on December 30 without any limit. Thus, you will have 50 days to deposit your notes and there is no need for panic.”
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| The prime minister on November 8 said people will have 50 days to deposit their notes and there was no need for panic. (Credit: PTI photo) |
One wonders what happened to that assurance.
What FM said on November 10?
Trying to calm down panic-stricken people, finance minister Arun Jaitley said taxman will not hound those making small deposits in scrapped currency.
He said, "We do believe that there is no need to rush in the initial days because people have a lot of time till December 30. Therefore, the more the deposits and exchange are spread out, the more will be the convenience to people itself."
He told the people that they have a lot of time (till December 30), only to scrap the earlier deadline midway and set a new guideline. This means you can't take the words of your finance minister at face value.
What FM said after the new RBI circular?
People close to the BJP, like Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, too criticised this notification. He tweeted: "New caveats on depositing old notes till December 30 were unnecessary and will undermine people's faith in govt assurances. A terrible last move."
After this Jatiley said the new circular has been brought in with a view to curtail queues at banks and holders are encouraged to deposit the entire holding in one go.
"If they go and deposit with bank any amount of currency no questions are going to be asked to them and therefore the Rs 5,000-limit does not apply to them if they go and deposit it once," he said.
This may have been Jaitley's attempt at diluting the RBI's circular by stating people they won't be questioned if they deposit everything at one go.
What is happening on the ground?
Whatever be the finance minister's clarification, the reality is that anybody depositing more than Rs 5,000 were questioned at the banks. India Today TV sent reporters to many banks across the country and found that the banks were adhering to the RBI's original guideline ignoring what the finance minister assured.
The RBI circular is silent on why an honest citizen needs to answer to a banker on the time of depositing money because a banker is not an investigator.
Some people are saying that this action is based on the assumption that anyone who till date hasn’t deposited demonetised currency in their bank accounts are hoarders of black money.
So, deposits of the demonetised notes above Rs 5,000 can still be made but with questions attached.
Ironically, there are no restrictions on depositing cash under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, which is a black money declaration scheme under amended taxation laws.
If all that's not absurd enough, just wait for the RBI's next notification.