Mumbai: It seems New Year 2017 will bring along with it some sort of relief for the cash-starved populace that has spent most of its time in long queues for cash since demonetisation came into effect on November 8.
On Friday, government announced that it will reconsider the ceiling on cash withdrawal that was imposed after the note ban decision was taken and consequently people ended up with less or almost no cash in their hand.
Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa told country's premier news agency PTI that the decision will most likely be taken on the day when the deadline for depositing Old High Denomination (OHD) currency notes comes to an end.
The last day for depositing discarded Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes into bank accounts is December 30.
The decision if implemented will help reduce peoples' woes given the inconvenience they have faced in the aftermath of demonetisation that the government thinks would curb incidents of black money and prevent spread of fake currency notes.
Presently, the government has fixed Rs 2,500 a day limit on withdrawal done through ATM card. On the other hand, withdrawal through cheque at banks was fixed at Rs 24,000 a week.
Apart from that some special relaxations were also granted by government. Like a withdrawal of Rs 2.5 lakh was allowed for bearing marriage expenses. Trader community demanded through representations that they must be accorded larger withdrawal limit option. As a result, government allowed them to withdraw Rs 50,000 from current accounts.
