Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has ruled out interfering with the Reserve Bank of India's conditions barring anyone other than NRIs and Indians returning from abroad from depositing the junked notes in select central bank branches.
Clarifying the government's stand on the December 30 deadline for deposit of scrapped currency notes, Jaitley said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi had specifically said that the central bank RBI will fix "terms and conditions" for the same."
Jaitley was responding to a query that PM Modi had announced on Nov 8 that people will have opportunity to till March 31 to deposit old notes.
"People in large number have already exchanged (notes)," Jaitley said, adding, that "the RBI has fixed their own criteria...I will respect that".
When asked about the ease in withdrawal norms, Jaitley said that it was for the central bank to decide after it assesses the market situation
"RBI will decide by assessing market situation. Many a time, actions are taken in phases, so relaxations are also done in phases," he said when asked by when restrictions on cash withdrawals are expected to be removed.
"Actions are taken in phases, so relaxations are also done in phases," he said.
Currently, an account holder is allowed to withdraw Rs 24,000 per week from the counters and Rs 4,500 per day from ATM.
The 50-day demonetisation exercise of depositing and exchanging of defunct Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes closed on December 30.
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