In a fresh crackdown on black money, the government is reportedly considering an executive order that will seek to impose fines on people in possession of old scrapped ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes beyond December 30 when the deadline to deposit them in banks expires.
According to NDTV, the planned executive order will outlaw the transfer of over ₹10,000 in old notes and may even result in a punishment and a minimum fine of ₹50,000 or five times the amount in question, whichever is higher will be likely.
People will be allowed to keep no more than 10 banned notes regardless of denomination, according to media reports. Violations of the rule will carry a criminal liability municipal magistrates will hear cases on violations, said the NDTV report.
There has been no official word on the move which is likely to come up before the Cabinet on Wednesday.
The ordinance may also extinguish the liability of the government and RBI towards the promise to pay the bearer of these notes their value because of a statutory requirement.
In 1978 a similar ordinance was issued to end the government's liability after ₹1,000, ₹5,000 and ₹10,000 notes were demonetised by the Janata Party government under Morarji Desai.
With PTI inputs