December 30 was the last day for the submission of old demonetised notes in India. On the same day, President Pranab Mukherjee approved an ordinance allowing more time for non-resident Indians to deposit their old notes and imposing stiff fines on residents holding or trading in demonetised currency.
This facility has been granted to all Indian citizens who were outside India from 9th November, 2016 to 30th December, 2016 to tender these Specified Bank Notes (SBN) at the specified Issue Offices of RBI until 31st March, 2017. So now the RBI has announced that it will introduce a facility for exchange of the discontinued bank notes for NRIs.
At the time of return to India the number and denominations of the SBN will need to be declared to the Customs authorities at the airports and other entry points. Any false declaration will invite a fine of ₹50,000 or five times the amount of the face value of the SBN tendered, whichever is higher.
Under this notification by the RBI the points to note are
This facility will be made available through five of the offices of the Reserve Bank viz. the Reserve Bank offices at Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Nagpur. The above facility would be subject to the regulations of the notification “Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Currency) Regulations, 2015. As per these Regulations bringing back such currency into the country is restricted to ₹25,000/- per person. Separate FEMA provisions are applicable to persons in Nepal and Bhutan which would continue to apply.
The documents an NRI will need to furnish are as follows:
On ascertaining that the tenderer was abroad during the period from November 9, 2016 and December 30, 2016, the account is KYC compliant, fulfilment of other conditions and the genuineness of the notes tendered, admissible amount will be credited to the account under advice to the tenderer.
Further, to prevent any continued parallel transactions with the SBNs by unscrupulous elements, after this period, holding, transferring and receiving SBNs will attract a fine of ₹10,000 or five times the amount of the face value of the SBN involved in the contravention, whichever is higher.