desi

From news media reports, it seems that for OCI/PIO who legally took some rupee notes out of India, currently babus have provided no mechanism to redeem those notes for new ones or deposit old ones into an account. (Item 6 on latest update of FAQ on its web site by RBI)

Babus may come up with more rules. But again that hope may turn out to be futile as they still have not removed OCI and 50 year rule yet.

desi

if by trade you mean exchanging old currency for new one or deposit in an appropriate account in a bank then answer is NO. That deadline has passed.

If you are an indian citizen and you can prove that you were out of India during the specified period then you can bring up to 25000 RS back with you to India, fill up the custom declaration form and get it stampled by custom officer at the airport before leaving customs and then go to specfied branch of RBI to deposit money in your indian bank account.

For OCI/PIO, current RBI FAQ Item 6 states that they do not have any option at this time.

In order to prevent parellal underground illegal currency taking hold, Indian Government recently issued an ordinance criminalizing possession of UNDECLARED old notes. Enforcement for small amount is unlikely but unless you are Indian citizen, not worth carrying those USD 7 equivalent notes to India (until babus come up with clarification rule)

Unless you are hell bent on violating laws of country you are visiting, there is absolutely no need to change any plans of visiting India. You can follow up to date situation in Thorn Tree forum or to lesser extent here or simply google but it seems that in most urban areas getting money from ATM/bank or doing forex transactions is not an issue.

GUWonder

The Prime Minister approved and signed the ordinance. Otherwise the Indian President couldn't do anything on this matter. The Indian Presidency is largely a ceremonial post. The head of government is the Prime Minister, and the general executive powers of governing in this area too is vested in the Office of the Prime Monster.

oliver2002

Desi, the deadline to deposit old 500/1000 notes in regular banks has been extended till end Q1/17. Read the circular above. NRIs have a later deadline of end Q2/17 if they get the form above stamped at entry by customs.

​​​​​​​You guys may have other sources of info, but the demonetisation has caused considerable trouble in the sectors that only deal in cash to avoid reporting sales to GST.

GUWonder

The sectors that "only" deal in cash were probably "only" dealing in cash before GST too. Much of the reliance on cash in India has actually had less to do with GST avoidance than other factors. And we all know India is a land of many set traditions.

ukdoctor

The circular says about NRI etc being eligible to deposit the money in RBI offices provided the customs declaration form is signed by the officials at arrival . I didn't see any mention of them being able to deposit it into their bank accounts ??

Moreover the circular does not clarify whether foreign citizens or even those with PIO/OCI are eligible as it only mentions Indian citizens .

oliver2002

The process is the same as with torn/soiled/defaced bank notes. Only the money will not be exchanged for cash, but deposited in your bank account.

GUWonder

That deposit is assuming the person has an available Indian bank account.

desi

https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/FAQView.aspx?Id=122

Based on the above (last updated on Jan 4) from RBI's own web site,
a) Resident Indians have until 31 Mar.
b) Non-Resident Indians have until Jun 30.
c) OCI (Item 6) dont have any way.
d) foreign nationals also dont have any way (implicitly) as OCI dont have any way.

For a) and b) custom declaration form stamped by custom officer, relevant ID, an eligible bank account, proof of absence during specified period are needed. But from what I read, deposit can be done only at 5 specific RBI branches in the entire country. KIndly point to any official source that confirms that any regular bank or any other RBI branch can take these deposits. That would ease burden on NRI significantly.

Separate question: what happened to all that hype about OCI being on par with NRI? It was bad enough that they changed the rules retroactively to make this "life long visa" stamp a lie, now we find that even "parity with NRI in financial/economic matters" is a lie too.

This is currently on Home Ministry web site:
http://mha1.nic.in/pdfs/oci-chart.pdf

This is not something a politician decides. It is purely career babus (same ones who came up with "can't re-visit India within few months" or "life-long visa expires at 50" rules)

GUWonder

The RBI exchange route is allowed to most resident Indians? Only a tiny sliver of a minority of resident Indians haven't been in India for any time during November/December 2016, and so aren't they too now out of luck with remaining demonetized notes unless getting creative or worse?

Non-resident Indians resident in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan are out of luck unless getting creative or worse.

The government keeps changing the rules along so many different variables that it can't but speak to the incompetence of the government for forcing things down the throats of the common lok and the babus in this regard.

The "can't revisit India within a few months" was driven by the elected officials demanding something be done after being told David Headley had used a visa to repeatedly visit India in short period of time in order to set up things for the Thanksgiving 2008 long-weekend assault on Bombay by Pakistan-based terrorists.

shonamac

I will be arriving in India very shortly and have with me (a) about Rs 14K in SBN and (b) about Rs 25K sitting in a bank locker in India (for which only I have the keys).

What are my options now as an OCI? I will be in India now only for 6 days (of which, I believe one is a holiday)

This is not a HUGE amount of money to lose but I would rather spend it myself than offering it to Modi's altar

ukdoctor

No options for the 25 k in your Indian locker AFAIK.

For the 14k you have overseas , you have to get the currency declaration form filled/signed by the customs official at your port of arrrival and then have to take the notes/form/passport to the designated RBI office. You can then ask them to credit to to your Indian bank account (I hope you have one since you have a locker. )

The only issue is that the notification says that this route is for Indian citizens and I'm not sure if an OCI will be considered as such (hopefully there will a clarification soon)

shonamac

If you read the notification (see link in my post), #6 specifically says OCI holders are not covered. So are there no other OCI/PIO holders in my shoes?

Keyser

landed in del last night....still a long line at currency exchange & the 3 atms i tried at the airport had no cash....when will this nightmare end????

ukdoctor

You are correct. Point 6 of the RBI notification does exclude OCI and PIO and makes it very clear that they are not allowed to deposit at RBI now.

The scheme is currently open for Indian citizens only !!!

Link

https://m.rbi.org.in/Scripts/FAQView.aspx?Id=122


PS: I took all my Indian currency from the UK when I went to India in late November and deposited it.

I offered to take my colleagues currency as well. However he was planning to deposit the funds via RBI office at Mumbai as he was going there next week.. He is a OCI and it looks like his money is now worthless.