Savings bank accounts holders can now withdraw up to Rs 50,000 in cash every week, up from the previous Rs 24,000 limit. The upper limit will be completely lifted from 13 March.
Effective 20 February (rpt), 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 13 March 2017, there will be no limits prescribed by RBI on cash withdrawal from savings bank accounts,” the RBI said.
The announcement was made by RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi on 8 February following the fiscal's last monetary policy review announcement by the central bank at which it kept its key interest rate unchanged at 6.25 percent, saying it awaited data on the full impact of the government's demonetisation drive three months ago.
On 30 January, the RBI had ended all curbs on withdrawals from Current Accounts, Cash Credit Accounts and Overdraft Accounts.
The limits were placed following the 8 November demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes. The upper limit at ATMs was just Rs 2,500 initially and was later raised to Rs 4,500.
In January, the RBI had hiked the daily ATM withdrawal limit to Rs 10,000 and doubled the weekly current Account withdrawal limit to Rs 1 lakh.
The upper limit for weekly withdrawal from bank accounts was raised to Rs 24,000 from Rs 20,000 in November.
While lifting of ATM withdrawal limits from 13 March will represent coming full circle for these machines in respect of demonetisation, it is to be seen whether the amount of cash supplied by RBI will be able to satisfy the demand of citizens in future.
(With inputs from ANI and IANS.)
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