Demonetisation: Banks across country will exchange old notes only for senior citizens on November 19
Indian Banking Association president Rajiv Rishi said the banks will operate during normal hours.
Banks across India will exchange old notes only for senior citizens on Saturday, reported NDTV. Indian Banking Association president Rajiv Rishi said banks will operate during normal hours. All other banking operations will be carried out as usual.
“Banks have been working very hard. There is visibly less rush now and so on Saturday we will not do exchange notes. The only exception is for senior citizens,” Rishi said, adding that the day will be used to finish pending work. All banks will be shut on Sunday, unlike last weekend when all banks were open to cater to customers who wanted to change the money following the Centre’s decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
On the same day, the All India Petroleum Dealers Association offered to begin dispensing up to Rs 2,000 at select public sector petrol stations across the country. After a meeting between State Bank of India chief Arundhati Bhattacharya and senior officials of Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum, it was decided that the facility will first be available at around 2,500 petrol stations with State Bank of India point-of-sale machines, and will later be extended to around 20,000 more.
The first few machines will be up and running in a few days, and the facility will be available even after November 24, which is the final day that petrol pumps can accept old currency. Oil companies have also said they will launch awareness campaigns to help shift customers to cashless transactions.
The surprise decision to demonetise high-value currency has met with massive criticism from Opposition parties, which have also brought up the matter in Parliament. The Congress has accused the government of introducing “financial anarchy” in the country because of the sudden shortage of cash. However, the Reserve Bank of India has said there is enough cash in the country. Jaitley questioned the opposition expressed by the Congress to the move and said the party had “vested interests”.