A fresh circular has been issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under which it has directed all the banks including private lenders to accept spoiled, scribbled or torn-out currency notes, says reports.

The latest diktat of the Central Bank comes in the backdrop of reports, that suggested a number of banks were not accepting soiled notes causing inconvenience to the customers. Further, RBI has instructed the “faulting banks”, to treat the notes arriving at their counters as “soiled notes.”

Under the RBI’s clean note policy, the banks cannot turn away the customers who come with soiled notes to deposit at their branches. Additionally, the RBI has also instructed lenders to avoid recycling of scribbled notes they get deposited at their counters. The banker’s bank, in its earlier circular, had asked the bank staff not to scribble or write on bank notes so as to avoid spoiling them. However, the directive was misinterpreted by the bank staff that might have been a cause of worry for banks. Some banks, in its consequence, stopped accepting identified notes. RBI has made exchange of soiled notes much easier for a customer and a non-customer of a bank who can make an over-the-counter exchange of these notes.

RBI has installed high-speed Currency Verification and Processing Systems machines at all its offices which can process 50,000-60,000 pieces per hour, the report added. “The soiled notes are shredded and briquetted on-line,” said the report.

SUPRAJA