KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a sudden address to the nation on Tuesday, announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination notes are being withdrawn from midnight.
He said that such notes will become “mere paper”.
Modi said this was being done to tackle the menace of black money in the country, which has sapped the economy. The idea behind denying legal tender status to the two big notes is aimed at unearthing the black money.
He also said that ATM withdrawals will be restricted to Rs 2,000 per day till November 11, when this limit may be increased slowly.
The Prime Minister said that the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination notes can be deposited in banks and post offices, and also exchanged across the bank counter by showing government-issued ID proof.
Withdrawals from bank accounts will be limited to Rs 10,000 for the first few days.
Banks have also been ordered to remain shut on Wednesday, he said.
Modi said that for medical patients, the old notes will be accepted.
He also said that retail petrol pumps will accept such notes till November 11, after which the stations will have to keep a register of such notes for some time.
The decisions come after a cabinet meeting.
The surprise decision came within less than six weeks after nearly 64,000 people declared hidden assets worth Rs 65,250 crore availing the ‘Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS)’, a four-month-long window that allowed tax dodgers to come clean or face prosecution. About 64,275 individuals had revealed assets under the IDS, which allowed people to legitimize concealed income by paying 45% tax.
Earlier in July, the income tax department had asked a staggering seven lakh people who have carried out high-value transactions without quoting their PAN details, to come clean and own-up, or face action. The tax department has collated 9 million such transactions from 2009 till now, and more than 100,000 of such transactions are believed to be worth around Rs 1 crore. The income tax department has also been collating data on property deals, a source of rampant black money transactions.
