Lok Sabha passes bill to make holding of old notes punishable

The Lok Sabha today passed a bill which makes holding of more than 10 old notes of Rs 500/1000 denomination punishable with a minimum fine of Rs 10,000, with the government saying the aim was to check parallel economy using the scrapped notes. Piloting the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Bill, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said it will extinguish the government’s liability towards scrapped notes and also eliminate the possibility of their bring used as parallel currency.