Withdraw RBI’s arbitrary restrictions, demands Ahmed Patel

The Reserve Bank of India is exchanging banned Specified Bank Notes (SBN) at only five of its offices, namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Nagpur, although RBI has as many as 20 regional offices in the country.

What’s more, the RBI is obliging only those who were outside India between November 8 and December 30, 2016. Pointing out that this flies in the face of the commitment made by the Prime Minister in his address to the nation on November 8, when he had promised that citizens would be able to exchange the demonetised currency till March 31, 2017 at RBI counters, veteran Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Patel has urged the Finance Minister to ensure that the PM’s commitment is honoured.

In his letter to Arun Jaitley, the veteran leader and Political Secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi points out that the arbitrary restrictions have not only imposed unwarranted cost on people but also constitute a major breach of trust on the part of the Government. This would hurt the vulnerable sections of the people more, the letter goes on to point out.

The Rajya Sabha MP reminds the Finance Minister that in 2005 when the old series of ₹500 notes was discontinued, RBI had allowed citizens to deposit them in any RBI office across the country. The same policy, he said, should be adopted even now since people are still flocking to various RBI offices with old notes.