Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not at all in favour of Rs 2,000 notes as he never considered it to be as note of the poor but as demonetisation was to be done in a limited time, he gave reluctant permission for it, said Nripendra Misra, Former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.
"...PM Modi was not at all in favour of Rs 2,000 notes. But, as demonetisation was to be done in a limited time, he gave reluctant permission for it...PM never considered Rs 2000 note as note of the poor, he knew Rs 2000 has hoarding value instead of transactional value," said Nripendra Misra, Former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.
The former Principal Secretary to PM Modi further said that the Prime Minister was not in favour of currency notes being printed outside the country.
Misra said it was decided during the demonetisation exercise, carried out in November 2016, that the currency notes that had been taken out of circulation (Rs 500 and Rs 1000) had to be replaced with new notes in a given period of time.
"In the period that the demonetised notes were to be deposited and new notes brought out, the capacity to print (new notes) was less and the option was to bring Rs 2,000 note. The team that was working made the proposal that Rs 2,000 notes will have to be printed in the wake of limited time. The Prime Minister was not at all enthused," he said.
He further mentioned that PM Modi said that their effort was to crackdown on black money but if a bigger denomination note comes then the capacity to hoard will increase.
On May 19, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had announced withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation, and said existing notes in circulation can either be deposited in bank accounts or exchanged by September 30.
The bank notes in Rs 2,000 denomination will continue to be a legal tender, the RBI said in a statement.
In order to ensure operational convenience and to avoid disruption of regular activities of bank branches, the RBI has said exchange of Rs 2,000 bank notes into bank notes of other denominations can be made up to a limit of Rs 20,000 at a time at any bank starting from May 23.
In a communication to chief general manager of all its local head offices, State Bank of India (SBI) informed that the facility of exchange of Rs 2,000 notes by public up to a limit of Rs 20,000 at a time will be allowed without obtaining any requisition slip.
"Further, no identity proof is required to be submitted by the tenderer at the time of exchange," the communication dated May 20 said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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