New demonetisation diktat: Now amount exceeding Rs 5000 to be deposited only once till December 30

In another new rule surrounding demonetisation, Ministry of Finance on December 17, 2016 said that deposit of old notes (Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes) exceeding Rs 5000 can be made only once per account until December 30. 

It said, "Provided that the deposit up to the amount of Rs 5000 shall be made directly into such account and the rest of the amount, if any, shall be subject to such conditions as the Reserve Bank of India may specify: Provided further that the deposit of an amount exceeding Rs 5000 shall be made only once per account until 30th December, 2016."

Following the notification, the RBI on Monday released a separate notification, stating that the credit of old notes will be afforded only after questioning tenderer, on record, in the presence of at least two officials of the bank, as to why this could not be deposited earlier and receiving a satisfactory explanation.

The RBI said, "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 Solution (CBS) to that effect so that no more tenders are allowed."

In case the involvement of third party, the RBI said that the equivalent value of old notes may be credited to a third party account, provided specific authorisation therefore accorded by the third party is presented to the bank, following standard banking procedure and on production of valid proof of identity of the person actually tendering.

Till now, the Government had allowed citizens to allow as much in their bank accounts as many number of times as they wanted till December 30, 2016 without any such scrutiny.  

The gazetted notification further said, "There shall not be any limit on the quantity or value of the specified bank notes that are tendered for payment and deposit made under the Taxation and Investment Regime for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016.”

Moreover, the Ministry inserted a new notification, which said that the deposit of specified bank notes collected between 10th day of November to 14th day of November, 2016, by the District Co-operative Central Bank "shall be subject to instructions of the Reserve Bank of India and for the specified bank notes deposited by individual customers or by the Primary Agricultural Credit Societies complete audit check of the veracity of the Know Your Customer documents of the said individual or the members of the said Primary Agricultural Credit Societies shall be conducted by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development:  Provided that the linked currency chest to District Co-operative Central Banks shall give the exchange value for verified specified bank notes only and subject to usual checks relating to identification of fake Indian currency notes".