New Delhi: Continuing its attack on demonetisation, the Congress took a dig at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by saying it has become the ‘Reverse bank of India’ after the apex bank partially relaxed its Rs 5000 deposit restriction on Wednesday.
"Reserve Bank of India has become Reverse Bank of India. In last 43 days of demonetisation, they have changed the norms 126 times now. On December 17, they said you cannot deposit more than Rs 5,000 up to December 30 violating their November 8th notification," said Congress leader Randeep Surjewala.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday had announced that deposits of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes exceeding Rs. 5000 shall be accepted only once per account until December 30. The credit in such cases shall be afforded only after questioning the tenderer, on record, in the presence of at least two officials of the bank, as to why this could not be deposited earlier and receiving a satisfactory explanation.
However, in a u-turn today, the Central Bank partially reversed its rule saying that the restriction does not apply to ‘Know Your Customer’ compliant accounts.
Surjewala said the latest relaxation provided to the KYC account holders is discriminatory and divides the bank accounts into those of the rich and poor.
"The restriction of Rs. 5000 will continue to apply on those poor people who have not been able to connect their accounts to an Aadhaar card or PAN card. So, you have two kinds of accounts in this country - If you're poor or semi-illiterate and you have not connected your bank account and converted it into KYC account, you can't deposit more than Rs. 5,000, while the rest can," he said.
The consecutive changes in the policies related to the currency ban have raised uncertainty among the masses and criticism from the opposition.
Former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday had took a potshot at the government saying that neither RBI nor Jaitley have credibility.
"Breaking PM's promise of Nov 8 and FM's assurance of Nov 11, RBI makes new rule on deposit, FM contradicts. Who should citizen believe? Neither has credibility," he had tweeted.
Echoing similar sentiments, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had earlier said, "RBI is changing rules like the PM changes his clothes," in a tweet.
