Several banks saw heavy rush of customers depositing demonetised currency notes on Wednesday, even as the Reserve Bank of India issued yet another circular clarifying its earlier order that had clamped curbs on such deposits.
Sita Devi, a resident of SP Verma Road in Patna, deposited scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes worth Rs 1.5 lakh in her account in the Fraser Road branch of Central Bank of India on Wednesday, with the plea that she had not done so earlier because of long queues at the banks.
"I live here alone. Seeing the crowd at the banks, I thought of depositing the scrapped notes before the period to do so ends. I promise not to deposit old currency notes in my account any further," Sita wrote in the application submitted to the branch manager.
She was obviously unaware at the time, like most customers who deposited on Wednesday, that the RBI had said fully know-your-customer (KYC) compliant account holders would not be questioned about why they had not deposited the demonetised notes earlier.
Farkanda Fatima, who works as a chartered accountant with a company on Boring Road, deposited Rs 70,500 at the same bank with a justification that she did not get time to do so earlier as she was busy.
The chief manager of Central Bank of India's Fraser Road branch, Sanjay Kumar, told The Telegraph: "We are taking written statements of customers depositing more than Rs 5,000 in scrapped currency notes as per the directions given to us by our higher officials. Seeking everything in writing helps give authenticity to the reasons cited by our clients."
Confusion prevailed at many banks as quite a few persons tried to avoid giving written statements. An ICICI Bank branch on Fraser Road reported 12 such deposits of scrapped notes.
Vishal Kumar Singh had brought Rs 6,000 in Rs 500 notes to deposit at the SBI-Patna main branch. He curtailed the sum quickly to Rs 5,000 after learning that no written statement had to be submitted for deposits up to Rs 5,000.
An industrialist had come with scrapped notes worth Rs 12,000 and said the money had been kept by his grandmother and discovered recently. The SBI branches had a printed questionnaire in which people depositing more than Rs 5,000 in demonetised currency were asked why the amount could not be deposited earlier, and its source.
Depositors also had to submit identity proofs such as Aadhaar and PAN.
SBI Patna main branch assistant general manager Akhil Kumar Mishra said some government departments were also coming with old currency notes worth lakhs to deposit.
"We are not going into the merit and demerit of the statements given by our customers. Two of our officials stand witness to such statements. Anyway those depositing money in bank accounts may come under the tax net," Akhil said.
Two days ago, the RBI had notified that deposits of scrapped notes in excess of Rs 5,000 into an account would be received for credit only once till December 30, 2016. It was to be allowed only after questioning the depositor, on record, in presence of at least two bank officials on what caused the delay in depositing such notes.
