desi

Odd that DEL remains a pain point compared to relatively smooth sailings reported at BOM, HYD, BLR, AMD.

desi

Since most people who travel to India even on once-a-year basis, keep at least some rupees at hand for immediate use after landing on subsequent trip, there should be lots and lots of OCI who are likely to be in your shoes.

Given this information currently posted on Home Minstry website,
http://mha1.nic.in/pdfs/oci-chart.pdf
OCI are supposed to be on parity with NRI on economic/financial matters.

So this explicit exclusion of OCI is preplexing.

If enough OCI organizations mobilize, another turn around from RBI is possible especially given that time period is 6 months long. (That circular from RBI does mention whom to contact if you have grievence with the policy. More effective approach would be to use Pravasi Bharatiya Office. Incidently annual PBD is in 3 days on 9th Jan)

If babus have any concept of service, they would have setup a counter right at the airport to exchange limited amount of money (at least up to the FEMA limit of Rs 25000) instead of forcing them to go to RBI branch.

desi

Quick question.

When does the recent ordinance of criminalizing possession of more than 10 notes of SBN (old 500/1000 RS notes) go into effect? June 30 or is it already in effect?

If @golmaale were to take his 14K in SBN to India on his upcoming trip, can he be subjected to harrassment by a custom official for possession of banned notes? (since he is not Indian citizen)

This IS getting ridiculous even by Indian standards.

GUWonder

Airport ATMs in HYD and/or BLR airports have also been bad this week.

GUWonder

Any great chance for change with regard to OCIs on this matter would involve lobbying the PMO or a more serious crisis of confidence in Indian currency. Either way, this whole debacle and the success of outside pressure would just go to show that the independence of the RBI has become more doubtful than it used to be.

Zulazai

How is the situation in Hyderabad? I will be arriving next week by British Airways and it arrived around 6AM. Is the forex counters open at the Airport? Or is there any ATM inside the airport arrivals? Iam hoping to withdraw some money to pay for my cab fair because I have no INR.

desi

https://m.rbi.org.in/Scripts/Notific...d=10815&Mode=0

Can someone help interpret the above circular which talks about exchange for foreign citizens upto 5000 Rs? (Some newspapers have reported the same item)

It seems to be re-extending until Jan 31 what was earlier extended to Dec15 and then to Dec 30.

If you keep clicking to find the original circular that is being referred in the extension, it states that foreigners can exchange foreign currency or SBN up to Rs 5,000 per week.

Does this give small leeway for people like @Galmaale travelling upcoming week or is it too much of wishful interpretation?

GUWonder

The PM has been privately telling some OCIs that there are and will be conditions whereby they still will be able to deposit demonetized notes when they come for late spring/early summer vacation.

ukdoctor

I heard the same from a source from the pravasi divas at BLR.

There will be a notification in a few days re. Status for OCI,PIO and they will also be allowed to deposit funds via RBI.

The max 25000 limit will apply as per my source and the rest of the criteria will be like the new rules for Indian citizens .

shonamac

Just an update on my earlier posts in this thread .... I arrived at Calcutta a few days ago and spent an hour at the airport tracking down various Customs officers till one finally printed a form for the official currency import declaration. Then I had to write down the serial numbers of each note and finally after another long wait the senior Customs guy (whose designation is a "Public Relations Officer") signed the declaration. So far so good.

The very next morning I went to the RBI and after negotiating a formidable gauntlet of protesting Trinamul rowdies at the main gate, I reached the main banking hall of the RBI.

After more queues I was told that Indian citizens arriving after 1 January were allowed to deposited any amount of old currency, but foreign citizens with OCI/PIO cards, such as yours truly, were sadly out of luck.

All they could do would be to write the RBI, await their response or wait for a possible change of rules.

So I have been the victim of a thug pickpocket called Narendra Modi.

oliver2002

Lovely news. So they have an official form? Can you post a neutralised scan pdf here? Just for kicks I could get the same form filled/stamped in DEL when I arrive there on Jan 22 to document my 8000 INR gift towards the greater good.

ukdoctor

As per a source of mine , there is a RBI notificiation on the way which will allow OCI's to deposit the cash. It is still being drafted but should be in place by the time you reach DEL.



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shonamac

Would have gladly posted but I am in CCU now and will not have any access to a scanner before your arrival in DEL. However, the form is NOT the one which was originally attached to one of the RBI notifications.

Nice to have all these magic sources

Unfortunately, it does not help me since I will be departing India this weekend

ukdoctor

Still may not happen. Seems that there is quite a lot of pressure not to allow OCI's to deposit cash .. I suspect they are worried that there will be much more money coming in from overseas .

​​​​​​The reason why they say they are not allowing OCI's to deposit cash is because they are worried that people with unaccounted money will make trips to India to deposit the cash .

​​I dont know why they think that people will try travelling to India specifially to deposit Rs 25000 to the bank account via RBI.!!!!

desi

If announcement for OCI didn’t happen during Pravasi Bhartiya... thing, then the probability is decreasing. But anything is possible.

The news story reported one babu stating that "do we have to allow anyone who has ever visited India?". Babu obviously don’t know what an OCI is. (In the mean time, Home Ministry web site continue to state in BOLD that in economic/financial matters, OCI will be considered on par with NRI!!)

Separately, while talking about rumors, another one heard is that literally boatload of old notes have been moved to Muscat and Dubai via dhow/trawler to be send back with low level labor class in 25000 increments at 2000 rs bonus incentive. Most of these are NRI and not OCI. So lot more money is going to come by June 30.