As NRI’s in Kuwait welcoming the bold decision by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday about denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, the NRIs in Kuwait share their concerns and uncertainty about the options available for NRIs.
In a surprise move, the prime minister announced that the 500 and 1000 rupee notes are invalid from 9th November 2016 to tackle the menace of black money in the country, which has sapped the economy.
Indian expatriates in Kuwait are not keeping big amounts of Indian rupees since India strictly asked its expatriates not to carry Indian currency notes from abroad to India. Still, most of the Indians may be keeping at least Rs 1,000 with them when they come back from home for any emergency spending at airport during their travel. With this sudden withdrawal of 500 and 1000 rupee notes, they are concerned about that few thousands of rupees they carry along after their last vacation.
According to the new scheme of exchanging the exciting notes, anyone can exchange the existing 500 and 1000 rupee bank notes at branches of commercial banks, Regional Rural Banks, Urban Cooperative banks, State Cooperative Banks and RBI till 30th December 2016. An NRI can deposit the currency to their NRO bank account as per the government guidelines. For those who are unable to exchange their Specified Bank Notes on or before December 30, 2016, an opportunity will be given to them to do so at specified offices of the RBI, along with necessary documentation as may be specified by the Reserve Bank of India till March 2017.
Generally the NRIs in Kuwait plan their next vacation in 2017 June – July, that is during the school vacation. But the fact that the deadline given to replace the old currency notes will be over by this time really concerns the NRI community in Kuwait. "We cannot travel to India only to exchange few thousands of rupees we are carrying with us. We are hoping that the government of India will extend the dead line of replacing the old currencies at least till the end of 2017", an NRI businessman told IndiansinKuwaitc.om
Large number of people are approaching the Indian Embassy in Kuwait to check how they can replace the currencies they have with them. "As per the rule, the Embassy cannot accept Indian rupee at the embassy", the officials from Indian Embassy informed IndiansinKuwait.com. Embassy is getting large number of calls from the community as the news of denomination of 500 and 1000 rupees broke out.
Indians are also looking at the options to replace old currency with the money exchange in Kuwait. Large number of Indians throng to the money exchanges to change and returned back with empty handed while trying to change the currencies to Kuwaiti Dinar. "As per the government of India rule, the 500 and 1000 denominations are no more a legal tenders and thus we are unable to accept these currencies until we get further notification from the authorities", said officials of one of the leading money exchange in Kuwait to IndiansinKuwaiat.com
The only hope for the expatriate community is that the government will extend the deadline of replacing the currency till the end of next year.