Despite the announcement of withdrawal sops for families with upcoming weddings by the Finance Ministry, banks have failed to disburse the money because of the absence of operational guidelines from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Banks hope to allow the stipulated withdrawal of Rs2.5 lakh per wedding from early next week after getting operational guidelines from the central bank.
The Government on Saturday inflicted more pain on those who have deposited more than Rs2.5 lakh in their respective accounts as the Income Tax Department issued hundreds of notices across the country seeking source of funds from individuals and firms who deposited huge amounts of cash in banks using the scrapped Rs500 and Rs1,000 currency notes.
Even after ten days of demonetisation, the woes of the people due to cash scarcity in most of the ATMs and banks still continued. But Saturday witnessed orderly queues at banks following the Indian Banks Association’s decision to serve only respective customers and exchange notes just for senior citizens.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday, “The rush at bank branches has come down significantly and there is absolutely no panic. The long queues have become smaller and it is the same all over the country.”
Meanwhile, three days after the Government announced relaxations, people are still running from pillar to post to withdraw Rs 2.5 lakh from their own accounts for marriage. This being marriage season, people thronged the branches with all possible evidence of marriage and their identity proof to get the much-needed cash. But banks were unable to dispense this amount in absence of operational guidelines from the RBI.
Punjab National Bank (PNB) Managing Director Usha Ananthasubramanian said, “In the absence of operational guidelines from the RBI, we were unable to give Rs 2.5 lakh for marriages. We expect the guidelines by Monday or Tuesday hopefully and thereafter branches should start disbursing money for marriages. However, as of now we understand that the amount can be drawn only by either one parent or the person getting married. The limit of Rs 2.5 lakh will apply separately to the girl’s and the boy’s family.”
Meanwhile, acting swiftly, the Income-Tax Department issued notices under Section 133 (6) of the Income Tax Act (power to call for information) in various cities and towns across the country. I-T Department officials said the notices were issued after banks reported certain cases of “unusual or suspicious volumes of cash deposits” in their accounts, primarily beyond Rs 2.5 lakh.
With the Government and the RBI struggling to manage cash availability across the country, small businesses, from vegetable vendors to dhabas and small kirana stores that use cash as mode of transaction, were the worst hit.
A bulk of daily labourers were rendered jobless as construction and other activities came to a standstill in the wake of cement, sand and other supplies not coming in.