Bengaluru: Mad rush at post offices to open accounts, deposit old notes

Bengaluru: Question: How to deposit old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination notes legally?
Answer: Open a savings account in the Post Office!

Post offices are now accepting old denomination notes to open the new Savings Accounts.

According to the post office staff, earlier, on a daily basis there were very few people coming forward to open savings bank accounts in post offices. “There were around 15 per day. But since November 9, anywhere between 100 to 125 people are visiting post offices in the city seeking applications to open a new savings bank account. One of the main reasons is that they are allowed to use the old cancelled notes to open an account. Rs 50 is enough to open an account and for their initial deposit people are paying in all old notes,” informed an officer.

“We will continue this service till the union government bans us from accepting these notes,” he added.

According to the postal department officials, post-demonetisation, post office products are witnessing more demand, especially SB accounts. “In rural areas, like Jan Dhan, PAN card has not been made compulsory to open an account. Compared with opening a bank account, it is easy to open an account in the Post Office. So there is huge demand. With co-operative societies, (which are mostly spread in the rural areas) not allowed to collect old denomination notes, post offices have become the preferred choice of the general public,” explained another officer.

“An account opening process takes just 10 to 15 minutes in post offices. People are issued ATM cards too,” he added.