Demonetisation: What could change after December 30

Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 50-day demonetisation deadline draws to a close, there are quite a few things that still remain the same. With cabinet on Wednesday penalising holding of scrapped currency notes, here's what could change in the days ahead.

ATMs

Though the queues outside ATMs seem to be getting shorter every day, those long serpentine queues may come back once you ring in the new year. Expect people to queue up outside ATMs as they scramble for cash to pay their domestic helps, housemaids, etc.

Note-ban Windfall

According to a TOI report 90% or Rs 14 lakh crore of the scrapped currency has come back to the system. The government had estimated that around Rs 3 lakh crore of the scrapped Rs 14.93 lakh crore won't come back to the system. This could have led to a windfall for the RBI and the government could have used that money for public spending. With the absence of any economic dividend from this whole exercise, the government may cut down public spending on various schemes.

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Budget Expectations

There have been several reports suggesting that tax slab is likely to be increased from a minimum of Rs 2.5 lakh per annum to Rs 4 lakh. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier said that India now needs to move to a lower level of taxation to be globally competitive. With crucial state elections just around the corner, the government is likely to meet the expectations of taxpayers in the upcoming budget.