Soon you may not be able to swap your old notes across banks' counters--but deposit in accounts

As queues leading to ATMs are looking shorter in a significant number of locations across the country on the 10th day since scrapping two high-value currency notes, over 25000 ATMs have been made ready to dispense Rs 2000 notes and now petrol pumps are also allowed to swipe your card and hand you over Rs 2000 in cash, Ministry of Finance may soon instruct banks to stop swapping old notes. Already the banks have been asked to entertain exchange requests of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes upto the limit of Rs 2000, a deep drop from earlier limit of Rs 4500. In may be another eight to ten days of time, banks will not entertain any further old notes' exchange requests. Holders of such notes will have only option left with them--deposit those in their banks. A source close to the Ministry told DSIJ on Friday that the government is now keen on further cutting down on such activities in the banks letting banks to focus on its regular business, as used to be before November 8 night. "The priority right now is to bring situations under absolute control and normalcy in banking activities restored. Banks have been doing their bit and there has to be a cutoff when since the banks should stop such requests. You can anyways deposit your old notes in your bank accounts till end of the year," said the source close to development. "The idea is to discourage the black money holders using people to stand in the queues in exchange of some money and swap such notes on their behalf. As the government is keen to ensure no further insertion of unaccounted for funds in our system, banks may soon be advised to stop accepting old notes across the counter," said the source. Meanwhile, after another round of discussions with the petroleum dealers, another 10,000 odd petrol pumps may also be involved in the activities related to letting people swipe their cards and get Rs 2000. Already 25,000 petrol pumps have started the process from this morning.