The Reserve Bank of India has said that banks will honour all currency notes, scribbled and unscribbled, after rumours spread through some local media that the central bank has advised banks not to accept notes that were scribbled upon.
Scribbling on the top of the note is a widespread practice, often used by bankers and shopkeepers to keep a count of the number of notes in a stack.
Some local media advised customers to exchange such scribbled bank notes with their bank branches before December 31, 2013 and get fresh notes issued instead.
“In the wake of rumours circulating in the market that from January 1, 2014, banks will not accept bank notes with anything written on them, the Reserve Bank has urged members of public not to fall prey to such rumours and to use their bank notes without any fear. The Reserve Bank of India has clarified it has NOT issued any such instructions,” RBI said in a notification.
Generally, when RBI wants to make any policy change as such it is widely publicised in English language as well as local media in the form of an advertisement.
The central bank took this opportunity to urge the members of the public to refrain from writing anything on the notes as it goes against RBI’s clean note policy. (PTI/NDTV)
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