Holding banned notes? Get ready to pay Rs 10,000

You will be heavily penalised for hoarding banned Rs 500/1000 notes. The Indian government has notified a law that makes holding of more than 10 scrapped notes punishable with a minimum fine of Rs 10,000.

Also, a minimum fine of Rs 50,000 will be slapped for false declaration by persons who were abroad during the demonetisation period (November 9-December 30, 2016) and given time to deposit such scrapped notes with RBI till March 31.

With the law coming into force, possession of more than 10 pieces of the old notes by individuals and more than 25 pieces for study, research or numismatics purpose will be a criminal offence, attracting fine of Rs 10,000 or five times the cash held, whichever is higher.

The Act also ends the liability of the Reserve Bank and the government on the demonetised currency notes.

The government took the demonetisation decision on the recommendations of the RBI's central board to eliminate unaccounted money and fake currency notes from the financial system.

The law prohibits the holding, transferring or receiving of scrapped notes from December 31, 2016, and seeks to confer power on the court of a first class magistrate to impose penalty.