1. RESERVE BANK OF INDIA TO ISSUE Rs.200 NOTES: The Reserve Bank of India has cleared a proposal to issue Rs.200 currency notes from June 2017. According to a report by India Today, the new note is already in the pipeline but RBI is only awaiting instructions from the Central government to go ahead with the printing procedures.

2. BAN ON CASH TRANSACTIONS OF ABOVE Rs 2 LAKH NOT APPLICABLE TO BANKS AND POST OFFICE WITHDRAWALS: The Finance Act 2017 provides that no one can deal in cash in excess of Rs 2 lakh in a single day, in respect of a single transaction or Transactions relating to one bill/event or occasion. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has clarified that the ban on cash transactions of more than Rs 2 lakh a day will not apply to withdrawals from banks, post office savings account, and cooperative banks. The restriction will also not apply to any receipt by government, banking company, post office savings bank and cooperative banks.

3. BANKS WANT RBI TO RELAX NORMS FOR LOANS TO HIGHLY INDEBTED FIRMS: Effective April 1, banks have to set aside higher provisions for loans given to Highly Indebted Firms. But, under the International Financial Reporting Standards ( IFRS) norms, banks will not get any relief on any kind of exposure to indebted companies. Hence banks have requested the RBI to give them more time.

4. GOVERNMENT ASSURES THAT THERE IS NO PLAN TO DEMONETISE Rs.2,000 NOTES: The government has assured that there is no plan to demonetise Rs.2,000 notes. The government has clarified that these are only rumours and has requested the public and the press not to go by such rumours.

5. LINK AADHAAR CARDAND PAN CARD: Both PAN Card and Aadhaar card are unique identification cards that serve as proof of identity that are necessary for registration and verification purposes. Now the government has urged all entities across the country to link the PAN cards with the Aadhaar Cards. By linking these two cards the government will be able to keep tabs on taxable transactions of a particular individual or entity. This will also not allow anyone to avail multiple PAN cards. Those who have linked their PAN and Aadhaar cards will be able to file their E-returns with ease and they no longer have to submit their IT acknowledgement to the department. There are rumours that linking of PAN card with Aadhaar card will be made mandatory in future.

6. NEFT TRANSFERS TO BE FASTER AS RBI CUTS CLEARANCE TIME: RBI has decided to slash the clearance time for National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) which will enhance the efficiency and speed of the electronic payment system. Henceforth the NEFT settlement cycle will be reduced from hourly batches to half hourly batches, as a result of which the number of settlement batches will be 23, adding 11 more additional settlement batches.

7. PAYMENT VIA UNIFIED PAYMENTS INTERFACE (UPI) INCREASES: The value of transactions made through UPI channel in March 2017 rose by 25.7% over the previous month to Rs. 2,390 crores. The volume of such transactions jumped by 47.6%. Out of the 2.2 lakh transactions per day, around 80,000 to 90,000 transactions are done through BHIM app.