Chennai: Four days after Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were demonetised, foreign tourists to the state were stranded on Saturday, due to limited flow of lower denomination currency notes.
Foreigners who have the provision to bring Indian currency up to Rs 5,000 encounter problems at the money exchange in the Chennai airport, due to the demand of lower denomination notes. Explaining the ordeal, an Australian native, Kenith John here said, “They could convert just Rs 1000. We were asked to convert the rest of it in banks, after submitting the identity proofs.”
“I had to stand for five hours in the long queues of the bank to change my money. I had not eaten anything the whole day. We regret for taking a trip to India in a wrong time,” he added. Of the Rs 5000, the foreigners were also given a provision of converting it back to US dollars. An official at the money exchange counter said, “We are running out of lower denomination notes. We had to give Rs 500 notes to many foreigners. Most of them did not make issues, as they possessed international debit cards that is accepted by all the hotels.”
