Nepal Rastra Bank banned the usage of India\u2019s high-value new currency notes after the government declared that their usage will be \u2018illegal\u2019 in the country!<\/p>\n
Nepal Information Minister Gokarna Baskota announced the decision to stop the usage of INR 2,000, INR 500 and INR 200 notes in a Cabinet meeting on December 13, 2018.<\/p>\n
NRB Spokesperson Narayan Poudel said, these notes will be legal in Nepal only when India issues a Foreign Exchange Management Act<\/a> (FEMA) notification in accordance with FEMA Act.<\/p>\n India is likely to issue a FEMA notification, enabling its citizens in Nepal and India to possess certain amount of Indian currency.<\/p>\n The decision also comes as part of Nepal\u2019s Government preparations for \u2018Visit Nepal 2020<\/a>‘. The government plans to draw 2 million tourists to Nepal by 2020, a bulk of them from India, alone.<\/p>\n However, this ban will affect middle & low-income Indian tourists and Nepali laborers working in India.<\/p>\n When the Indian Government introduced the new denominations through the demonetization drive<\/a> in 2016, the Nepal government<\/a> did not make any declaration on them. The new denominations were being used freely in Nepal for the last two years.<\/p>\n Earlier, a similar ban was introduced in Nepal till 2017, against the usage of INR 500 and INR 1,000 denominations.<\/p>\n However, the ban was lifted after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s visit to Nepal<\/a> and its announcement was made official through a notification.<\/p>\n The Reserve Bank of India also formed a task force to ease currency exchange in Nepal for non-Indians possessing the non-functional notes of 500 and 1,000 denominations.<\/p>\n In another scenario, the government also announced serious actions against any writing on currency notes<\/a>, terming it as a serious offense and subjecting that act to penalty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nepal Rastra Bank banned the usage of India\u2019s high-value new currency notes after the government declared…<\/span><\/p>\n