Bank employees and their customers have been seeing stressful times after the RBI directed them this week to question deposits of old notes . The RBI ordered a rollback of its order 24 hours later, heightening the confusion. The onus of collecting black money shouldn’t rest with black money alone, says Nithin Mahadevappa, former Council Member of The Insstitute of Chartered Accountants, who joined Joyeeta Chakravorty in this week’s edition of The Chatroom
Banks were on Tuesday directed by the Reserve Bank of India to ask customers depositing over Rs 5,000 why they had failed to deposit the old currency notes earlier. But on Thursday banks were accepting the junked Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in KYC-compliant accounts without any questions following RBI's rollback of its stiff conditions just 24 hours later. The sudden decisions confused bank officials and left customers angry and upset. “People will lose trust in the banking system if such rules are constantly made and withdrawn," warns Mr Nithin Mahadevappa, former council member of the Southern India Regional Council Of The Institute Of Chartered Accountants Of India(ICAI).
A couple of days ago all deposits of over Rs 5,000 were questioned by two bank officials, who wanted a satisfactory explanation on why the old notes were not deposited earlier and now the rule has again changed.
Banks directed their branches minutes after the RBI issued the notification and bankers promptly started following it from the afternoon. Imagine the employees' stress. It is just too much confusion," he sighs, busy wrapping up his day's work at his office, he interrupts his schedule to reflect on the last couple of days’ confusion.
“To banks it seems like they are doing it for the betterment of the country. But there are other methods too to unearth black money. Why doesn't the government strengthen the Income Tax department, the Enforcement Directorate, the Jan Lokpal, Lokayukta, the Anti-Corruption Bureau and Central Vigilance Commission? There needs to be clear accountability to reduce black money," he says, adding, "Well, don't I make sense?"
Contending that interference in accepting deposits made by the public goes against the banks’ own rules of functioning, he recalls that the officials thought it would be a game changer for the country at first.
“But unfortunately, its capacity for printing notes is very low with only four printing stations in the country.With demonetisation, 86 per cent of the currency that was in the market in the form of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes was sucked out, creating a severe handicap. This has led to bankers merely clearing deposits and withdrawals for the past 40 to 45 days And their routine work of lending and clearing new proposals has been relegated to the background. The only good thing that has come out of this is the process of going digital and cashless. But the government has to come up with robust policies in the coming year to bring the economy back on keel," he sums up.
