“The diplomats who are based in Delhi told us that their missions require higher level of funds and the existing limits will not be sufficient for them, if those can be increases for diplomatic missions. Some of them collect consular and visa fees. If they are collected in old notes how they will be deposited and how will they be exchanged? So this is the first set of issues that has been brought to our notice by the resident diplomats. The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps has had a meeting with us and has brought these to our attention,” Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said during a press conference.
Indians living in other parts of the world are also facing problems due to the demonetization process as many of them had kept stacks of old currency notes for use during their visits to the mother country. They have now approached the Indian missions for intervention with New Delhi on their behalf.
“There are specific limits on the amount of Indian currency that can be taken abroad. But within those limits [Rs. 25,000 for business trip] if somebody has money abroad and is not travelling to India immediately, what happens? How does he get new notes for those old notes? NRIs have asked,” Vikas Swarup added.
Apart from that, foreign tourists and particularly those coming to India for medical tourism has also approached the Ministry of External Affairs on exchanging old currency with new.
The Ministry of External Affairs has referred all these matters to Finance Ministry.
“We have referred all these matters to Department of Economic Affairs which has formed an inter-ministerial committee. We await their advice which can then be shared with the diplomatic missions, foreign tourists and other categories,” said Swarup.
India had suddenly demonetized its currency on November 8 to curb black money by outlawing all high denomination bills. The shortage of currency has made things much tougher for the common people and led to several deaths.
