The ministry of external affairs announced that, Indian government established an inter-ministerial committee to look concerns expressed by NRIs, tourists from abroad and foreign missions following the demonetisation.

Although, foreign missions had sought intervention of the MEA to facilitate smooth collection of visa and consular fee and to permit them access to more funds. Money exchange associations, NRIs and foreign tourists abroad also have expressed concern about the difficulties being faced by them.

MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in a statement, that, "The department of economic affairs has now formed an inter-ministerial committee headed at the level of an additional secretary. A senior joint secretary from the ministry of external affairs is also a member of that committee and we await their guidance, their advice and their recommendation which can then be shared with those various categories who have approached us."

"Some (foreign missions here) have wanted to know if they could collect consular and visa fees in old notes. If so collected, they have sought to know how will those be exchanged," said Swarup.

"The third set of issues is by the money changer associations abroad. This is quite interesting because we don't have full convertibility. So, they have asked us the same question that what they would do with the stacks they have. How do they convert those?," the spokesperson added.

Also read: Relief in the demonetisation exercise

Nandini