JOIN USFour months after demonetisation, the Reserve Bank of India on Monday lifted all restrictions on cash withdrawals from saving bank accounts.
The RBI has already removed other restrictions such as on ATMs and current accounts last month.
“Effective March 13, 2017, there will be no limit on cash withdrawals from savings accounts,” RBI said in its preliminary assessment report on demonetisation.
The limit of withdrawal from savings accounts, which was initially set at Rs 20,000 per week, was revised to Rs 24,000 and further to Rs 50,000 per week effective from February 20.
The RBI has already removed withdrawal limits from current accounts effective from January 30. The withdrawal curbs from ATMs were done away with from February 1.
The curbs on withdrawal of currency notes from banks were imposed from November 10 to check currency flow from the banks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on November 8 announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes would cease to be legal tender.
Officials said that lifting of withdrawal curbs would also imply that remonetisation process was almost complete and banks and ATMs were fully equipped to disburse cash.
However, private sector ICICI, HDFC, HSBC and Axis banks have informed their customers about the resumption of transaction charges on cash withdrawals after a certain limit to put a restriction on excess withdrawal.
For HDFC, there will be four free transactions. It said Rs 150 plus taxes and cess will be charged from the fifth transaction.
Axis Bank said a charge of Rs 5 per thousand or Rs 150, whichever is higher, will be levied from the fifth cash transaction on savings accounts.
The government subsequently asked the lenders to rethink on their move, but a final decision by banks is still pending. The RBI report said digital mode of payment has increased sharply after demonetisation.