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The finance ministry revised the cap on bank withdrawals on Sunday while advising similar changes to ATM withdrawals less than a week after the government’s demonetisation of 1000 and 500 rupee notes left people in a tight spot. As per the directive, the weekly withdrawal limit from banks has been increased to Rs 24,000 from Rs 20,000, while the daily limit of Rs 10,000 has been scrapped. The ministry also advised banks to increase cash withdrawal limits in ATMs to Rs 2,500 per day in recalibrated ATMs. People were able to withdraw only upto Rs 2,000 so far. As for exchange of demonetised banknotes, the ministry advised increasing the limit from Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,500. The new currency notes of Rs 500 also finally hit the bank branches. Sources said the Reserve Bank of India will mint more currency notes of the denomination in the coming days. The move comes amid growing anger among citizens who, for the past week, have been stuck waiting for hours in long lines outside banks and ATMs.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked banks to submit daily amounts of cash withdrawn from over the counter and through ATMs to help it gather accurate data on currency circulation. In a circular on Sunday, it asked banks to submit the data in a specific format in contrast to lenders sending it fortnightly. RBI and the government have been trying to assuage public anger after Prime Minister Narendra Modi abruptly decided to withdraw large denomination notes in an attempt to uncover many billions of dollars in undeclared wealth. 14th NOVEMBER, 2016, THE MINT, NEW DELHI

The government is likely to introduce legislation in the winter session of parliament to repeal three pharmaceutical-related laws. The prime minister’s office has written to the department of pharmaceuticals seeking its views and asked it to prepare for the introduction of the Bill to repeal three acts—the Pharmacy (Amendment) Act, 1959 (24 of 1959); the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Educational and Research (Amendment) Act, 2002 (28 of 2002); and the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Educational and Research (Amendment) Act, 2007 (19 of 2007) —according to a 6 November PMO letter reviewed by Mint.   (The legislative department is)… seeking your comments/concurrence … to facilitate introduction of a Bill to for repeal of the identified Acts in the next session of the Parliament,” the prime minister’s office said in the letter. 14th NOVEMBER, 2016, THE MINT, NEW DELHI

The Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) has sought safeguards under the new goods and services tax (GST) regime as they believe that MF units could become more expensive due to increase in cost or compliances. Amfi, along with PwC, made a representation to GST Commissioner Upendra Gupta last month and requested that securities should be excluded from the definition of goods or otherwise exempted from levy of GST. 14th NOVEMBER, 2016, THE BUSNIESS STANDARD, NEW DELHI  

Service tax collection from the Mumbai zone rose to ~45,821 crore in the April-October period of this financial year, exceeding the target by more than ~5,000 crore. Revenue collection by the service tax department was up by ~9,801 crore or 27.3 per cent, compared with ~36,020 crore mopped up in the corresponding period of the previous financial year, the department’s data showed. The zone has surpassed the target for the period by ~5,062 crore or 12.4 per cent. The government had given the revenue department target to collect ~40,759 crore by October 31. For the current financial year, the Mumbai zone has been given a revenue collection target of ~76,300 crore 14TH NOVEMBER, 2016, THE BUSINESS STANDARD , NEW DELHI