Time bar leads to last-minute rush to make good use of demonetized notes!

Hyderabad, Nov.24: People still having the demonetized 500 and 1000 rupee notes made a beeline to the banks, government offices and petrol bunks to ensure maximum utilization as the validity of these currency notes holds good only till Thursday midnight. In order to help provide the required relief to the people for making good use of the demonetized currency notes, the Central government has allowed till Thursday for exchange of these notes for cash of only Rs 4400 besides payment of bills for various service charges like electricity and water bills, property, sales and commercial taxes and so on. Since November 8 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on surgical strike for weeding out black money by demonetizing the big notes, people in hordes rushed to the banks to either encash them or deposit them to their accounts in various banks. This also resulted in an unexpected windfall for various government departments as people paid various bills using the demonetized notes. Even for purchase of petrol and diesel, motorists used the demonetized old notes till today. However, since the deadline being midnight today for the validity of these demonetized notes, people still holding these currency tried to make use of them till the last minutes by rushing to the banks. While a few could manage to encash for Rs 4400, many were advised to deposit them into their accounts. While quite a number of persons deposited the old notes into their accounts, many others were reluctant to deposit them into their accounts obviously for fear that they would come under the Income Tax radar. As a mater of fact, it is learnt that a number of persons still holding large quantity of the big notes and fearing to deposit them into their accounts in the banks tried to woo their domestic helps like servant maids, cooks, drivers etc. While some greedy fell a prey to the generous percentage offered by their employers, others refused to yield after seeking advice from their household. Having received information that such clandestine deposits were being dubiously made, the CBI officials launched raids on post offices at various places, including Abids, Himayatngaar, Narayanguda and so on. The officials reportedly arrested a person with cash of Rs 60 lakh trying to deposit without any valid documents. Meanwhile, the hardship of the poor and middle class people for cash for their daily needs continued what with the ATMs continuing to remain shut and the banks declaring no cash. The cash crunch along with the shortage of small notes continued to adversely affect small business and traders. Vegetable vendors, flower merchants and even petty tiffin and snack kiosks reported no business. Thus with the old notes’ validity expiring by midnight today and with non-functioning of ATMs and cash shortage in banks, denizens seemed to be in for critical days for some more time.