Weekly cash withdrawal limit raised to Rs 50,000 from 20 Feb; curbs to go from 13 Mar

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank on Wednesday said the weekly limit on withdrawal of cash from savings bank accounts will be increased to Rs 50,000, from the current Rs 24,000, from 20 February, and the limit will be removed completely from 13 March. “The limits on cash withdrawal from savings bank accounts continue to be in place. In line with the pace of remonetisation, it has now been decided to remove these limits in two stages,” said RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi. “Effective February 20 (rpt) 20, 2017, the limits from cash withdrawal from savings bank accounts will be enhanced to Rs 50,000 per week from the current limit of Rs 24,000 per week (and) effective March 13, 2017, there will be no limits prescribed by RBI on cash withdrawal from savings bank accounts.”  He was speaking to the media, along with RBI Governor Urjit Patel, after the central bank announced the sixth bi-monthly monetary policy review. On the basis of remonetisation, RBI had earlier relaxed restrictions on cash withdrawal from current accounts, cash credit accounts and withdrawal through ATMs on 1 February. However, the weekly withdrawal limit of Rs 24,000 on savings bank accounts is continuing. Government and RBI had imposed limits on withdrawal of money from ATMs and bank branches in view of the currency shortage following demonetisation. These limits, however, are being gradually eased, with RBI pumping in new notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000. The limits on withdrawal, however, are being gradually eased, with RBI pumping in new notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000. To a question if fake new currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 have come into circulation, Gandhi said the recent ones that have come to notice are photocopies of currency which can be easily identified by the common man. The deputy governor said the new notes have enhanced security and design features, and are not easy to copy. “The recent one that we have seen is the pure photocopy, so it is not real counterfeiting. So, this photocopy is easy for even a common man to identify. It will be possible for them not to be easily duped,” he said. Last week, the government had informed Parliament that it has not come across any confirmed reports on detection of counterfeit notes of Rs 2,000. “(Neither) the government nor RBI has come across any confirmed reports of detection of counterfeit notes of the denomination of Rs 2,000 in the banking channel,” Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.