The government will use indelible ink like during elections to prevent people from making more than the permissible number of times cash withdrawal from bank counters, the government announced on Tuesday.
Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das told the media that Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a second review meeting on demonetisation with officials of the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ascertain why there continued to be such long queues at banks.
"It was found that in many places same set of people are visiting to get cash. They are going from one branch to another branch. As a result, the benefit of withdrawal was getting restricted to a few people," Das said.
"To prevent this, indelible ink marks will be used, like in elections, at the cash counters," he said, adding unscrupulous elements were trying to convert their black money into white by going to different banks branches several times over in a day.
"Operating instructions will be issued to banks on how to use indelible ink. From today, this process will start in all major cities."
At the moment, the daily withdrawal limit from ATMs is Rs 2,500, and exchange of old notes from bank counters is Rs 4,500. This apart, the upper limit for weekly withdrawal from bank accounts stands at Rs 24,000.
Following are the highlights of his address:
1) Indelible ink will be used to identify people exchanging old notes in major cities
2) Upto 50,000 rupees can be deposited in Jan Dhan accounts
3) A team is being constituted to popularise use of e-wallets and to oversee that ATMs are re-calibrated at the earliest.
4) Task force formed to monitor stocking and transfer of old notes. No reason to panic
5) Jan Dhan account holders should not allow other people to use accounts.
6) Places of worship asked to immediately deposit notes of smaller denominations so that they can be dispensed to people.
7) Action will be initiated against government hospitals and pharmacies are not accepting old currency
8) Intaglio ink used in notes is nothing new. That’s reason for colour bleeding from the currency notes. (Over reports of colour bleeding)
Das said that the situation is improving day by day and will ease out in the coming days.