Demonetization and OCI My Experience
This may be
a stale story for many as the “Note Bandhi” is now seven months old and most of
you may have read several blogs and news items regarding it by now. However, I
thought of writing my personal experience how your genuine wealth became
“Kagaz-ka-Tukada” in the words of the RBI Officer and lack of clarity on what
should people do with that “Kagaz-ka-Tukada”. This is my personal story and I
would like to share it with the readers of my blogs and my social media
friends.
I am one of
the staunch supporters of Prime Minister Modi long before he was declared the Prime
Ministerial candidate. I continue to support his vision and the policy directions.
I also supported his demonetization decision which is commonly known as “Note
Bandhi” in India. I responded to several blogs, tweets, face book posts and
continues to do so. I had two situations to experience the effect of “Note
Bandhi”, one on January 25th dealing with Sate Bank of India and
another on February 2nd, dealing with the Reserve Bank of India. The
experience with State Bank was more personal and the one with Reserve Bank is
common to all Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) or Person of India Origin (PIO)
(by whatever phrase your association with India is known). I will explain both
the situations in the following paragraphs in more details.
OCI and NoteBandhi: I arrived
in India on 24th January, 2017, first time after the “Note Bandhi”. Since
cash being the main medium of spending in India, one had to carry bundles of
rupees during the stay in India. At the end of every India trip, some rupees within
the legal limits of carrying foreign currency will be left with you and the
same is retained even when after you exit India. This cash comes handy on your
next trip to pay for the immediate needs such as to pay for the taxi from the
Airport to Home and miscellaneous expenses until you get a chance to go to your
Bank and draw money from your NRI account. Most people who make frequent trips
to India practice this retention of left over cash. We too had some which was
within the limit of the Re.25,000/- allowed to carry abroad. Most of the notes
were either Re. 500 or Re. 1000 in old currency. The RBI (Reserve Bank of India)
announced that those holding old currency and are abroad on and after the
demonetization on 8th November, can deposit the old currency in
select RBI branches until June 30, 2017. Many in the Diaspora wrote detailed
blogs on this policy but failed to read the fine prints of the announcement.
After a 45
Minutes wait in the queue (a queue of just one person in front of us with 3
custom officers handling the currency exchange certification in Kochi Airport),
the customs officer in Kochi Airport examined the Indian currency with us and
issued the prescribed certificate to be presented to the RBI for exchanging it
with New Currency. Neither while standing in the queue nor while issuing the
certificate, did the learned Customs of Officers of Government of India tell me
that this rule is not applicable to OCI holders. They did examine our passport,
OCI Card and whatever travel documents we had. I am not sure the Customs Officers
were ignorant of their own rules or negligent as I was in reading the
notification.
Armed with
the Certificate issued by the Customs Officer at the Kochi Airport, I took a
flight to New Delhi from Kochi and reached RBI Office in New Delhi on 2nd
February 2017. Contrary to my expectation of a short line as the Note Exchange
was only for people who were abroad when the demonetization notification was
issued, I saw thousands of people lined up to exchange the old currency with
new ones. My wife and my friends who accompanied me occupied a spot at the tail
end of the queue. I walked towards the RBI gate to have a feel of how long this
could take for us to get our old currency exchanged on that day with that many
people in the queue. Reaching at the gate, I found a few people arguing with
the Security Guards. There were no Officers at the gate to respond to the
queries of the people in the queue. I watched the situation for a while and
googled the phone number of RBI. I was routed to Ms. Saroj Kalia, General
Manager (Currency). I explained the purpose of my call to Ms. Saroj and
apprised her of the situation outside the gate. The decent lady in Ms. Saroj
transferred my call to One Mr. Rana, who is the officer-in-charge of currency
exchange. I explained to Mr. Rana my purpose of the call. Mr. Rana told me that
all that we read from various websites and social media are incorrect and the old
currency exchange relaxation until June 2017 is applicable to only for those
holding Indian Passport who were abroad since November 8th 2016 and
returning to India for the first time. Mr. Rana further said that the notice is
pasted outside the RBI gate which I can read for myself. Several people were
crowded in front of the place where the notice was pasted. After significant
effort, I positioned myself to read the notification and learnt that OCIs are
not NRIs (which I should have known anyway) and the rule to exchange the old
notes with new ones is not applicable to me and fellow Overseas Citizens of
India (OCI).
Rule is
rule and I take pride in abiding by the rule. Educated well enough with the
information pasted at the RBI wall and realizing the 22K rupees loss (I spent
for myself and my wife to travel to Delhi by Air) in addition to the customs
cleared old notes, I attempted to call Mr. Rana again to ask him what should I
do with the Old currency notes. Since Mr. Rana did not pick up the phone, I
thought he is busy and called the GM (Currency) again. The GM(Currency) gave
the line again to Mr. Rana. I asked Mr. Rana that now that I know that I can’t
exchange the old currency under the prevailing rule, what should I do with the
old currency. Mr. Rana bluntly told me that what I hold is not currency but
“Kagaz-ka-Tukada” and I should wait for further notification from the
Government on what to do with the old currency. I asked Mr. Rana that since he
handles the issue, will he be reporting our concerns to the Finance Ministry to
which Mr. Rana said, he only get directions from the Finance Ministry and
informing the FM of the issues faced by the public is not part of his role. I
pleaded with Mr. Rana to at least send some officers outside and announce what
he said to me, so that the thousands like me who are not technically NRIs need
not stand in line for hours to learn what I learnt from him. I am glad they did
come outside and announced to the public and I could see several people
branching out of the queue surprised and disappointed how their money which was
legally obtained exchanging foreign currency at some point became “Kagaz-ka-Tukada”.
Some OCIs were still standing in line when I left hoping against hope that
their old notes will somehow get exchanged. They may have also met with
disappointment when they reached the counter of RBI. I followed up with RBI, called
Mr. Rana on 5th May, 2017 seeking a direction on what to do with the
old currency and the certificate issued by the customs Officer as I have not
come across with any new notification from the Finance Ministry. RBI still
hasn’t clarified what should I and people like me should do with it except Mr.
Rana repeating that what I hold is “Kagaz-ka-Tukada”. Never in the past I felt that “I am a complete
alien in India” until this incident. This is one of the several examples that all
the pronouncements by PM Modi to the diaspora are not trickled down to the
policy makers and bureaucracy or are not following up with policy directions.
Currency Withdrawal Limit and my predicament: Unlike
previous visits to India, this time I had a special purpose, the wedding of my
daughter. The marriage was on 29th January, 2017. As usual, I
visited the state Bank of India Branch in my home village where I maintain my
NRE account. My brother who accompanied
me forewarned that there could be a lot of people in the queue. When I entered
the bank branch, there were approximately 60 to 70 people thronged in front of
the bank counters. Spoiled by the bank facilities and customer service that we
enjoy in the US, one could be easily disturbed with that sight. Soon I figured
that there are several queues, and the lengthy one is for cash withdrawal. One
would wish if the Bank could minimum offer a seat to the waiting customers.
Probably the term “Customer is God” is not applicable in “Gods own Country”. In
the past, usually, I walk into the Manager’s office and do all my banking items
and along with the Bank Manager help me get the cash that I need. This time
there were no familiar faces as all the staff in the Branch appeared new. The Branch
Manager’s office was empty, so I walked to the Service Manager to enquire about
a KYC formality. The service Manager recognized me when referred to the email
correspondences that we had previously. I gave the KYC proof which the Service
Manage examined and asked me to come back when the Branch Manager would be
back. The Branch Manager had gone to get cash which I think is brought every
day from the main branch in another city. My wife had some locker related work which she
did with the help of the Service Manager. We left the bank to return after 3
hours to withdraw the cash. This time the Branch Manager was available. We knew
that the withdrawal limit is Re. 24,000/- per week and my wife stood in line
with the check. We could not use our ATM card as it wasn’t working, possibly
due to non-usage. I went into the office of the Branch Manager. There were two
people sitting and a few standing in his office. The Branch Manager was
multitasking with all of them plus answering the staff. The Service Manager
introduced me to the Bank Manager and I was offered a seat. I was a little
hesitant to occupy the seat as several customers standing came earlier than me.
The Branch Manager asked again to be seated and I happily did and thanked for
the gesture. I then introduced the need for additional cash for my daughter’s
wedding the following Sunday. The Branch Manager mentioned, that I can only
withdraw Re.24,000/- in a week from my account. This is the relaxed ceiling after
the Re. 4000/- for a longtime post demonetization. I referred the much-publicized
relaxation of drawing up to 3.5 Lakhs for wedding purposes. The Branch Manager
mentioned that such a relaxation does not exist. Even if it existed, is not
wise to go that route to get that relaxation as the documentation required for
it is cumbersome and unlikely to be sanctioned prior to the wedding date which
was 29th January. I enquired whether my wife can draw money from the
account as she is a joint account holder with me to which we were told that the
limit of Re. 24,000/- per week in cash is per account and not per account
holder. By this time, I got the full view of the gap between the policy
statements and the implementation reality on the ground. I would however, give
my full mark to the Bank Manager and the Bank Staff for their patience and
perseverance. One must admit and admire that the Bank Staff have been doing their
best with all the odds and constraints. Learning that I can’t get more cash and
with just Re.24,000/- in hand, my effort was to save as much in cash for the
wedding. I hoped, at least some expenses could be met by check or Credit Card. I requested the Taxi driver who picked us up
from the Airport to accept check or to wait for a week to get more cash
otherwise the cash in hand for my daughter’s weeding would have been just Re.
19,200/-. The taxi driver preferred the wait instead of other modes of payment.
I braved to get the wedding going with Just Re.24,000/- with me. My sisters and
brothers came forward and together collected another Re.50,000/-. There were hardly
any takers of check or credit card. Since my daughter already decided that the
wedding will be a simple ceremony, the need for money, cash or otherwise was
minimum. She did not buy Gold or any other luxuries. If she did, with lakhs white
remittance money of US dollars sitting in my account, I would have been a
beggar for cash for an important life event like the wedding of my daughter. I
am proud of my daughter for the simplicity she practiced in her life including in
her own wedding.
In the end,
I appeal to the RBI to give proper direction on what to do with the old notes.
I am okay to keep the old notes and the customs issued certificate as a
souvenir if there are no legal complications in doing so.
About the Author:
The author is a keen political observer and closely follows US and Indian
Politics. More Blogs at http://sabrimala.blogspot.com,
Twitter: mohanMNair
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