The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday set a temporary monthly withdrawal limit of Rs 10,000 for bank accounts opened under the Jan Dhan Yojana scheme. In a statement on in its website, the central bank said accounts which were fully compliant with Know Your Customer norms would be allowed to withdraw money till the monthly limit.
Branch managers could allow withdrawals beyond the limit, “only after ascertaining the genuineness of such withdrawals and duly documenting the same on [the] bank’s record”, the RBI said in its statement.
Accounts under the scheme not fully compliant with KYC norms can only withdraw Rs 5,000 per month, the statement said. The bank clarified that the temporary limit would be applicable to accounts in which demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes had been deposited since November 9.
The central bank said the temporary move would prevent benami property transactions and money laundering. It would also protect farmers and rural account holders from those looking to launder their money through them, the bank added.
There has been a surge in deposits made at banks since the government demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes on November 8. The country has been grappling with a cash crunch, with the RBI and Centre’s repeated revision of rules to exchange the old notes. On November 27, RBI Governor Urjit Patel said the bank was “taking all necessary actions to ease the genuine pain of the citizens who are honest and have been hurt” by the move.
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