Banks across the country will start accepting Rs 2,000 notes for exchange and deposit from Tuesday. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had on Friday announced the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation and gave the public time till September 30 to either deposit the Rs 2,000 notes in accounts or exchange them at banks.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das clarified on Monday that as part of a clean note policy, RBI has been conducting such exercise of withdrawal of currency notes from time to time and such exercise was undertaken in 2013-14, whereby the notes which were printed prior to 2005, were withdrawn from public circulation.
Onmanorama answers some of the frequently asked questions about the exchange process.
Where to exchange?
The facility to exchange notes will be available at all bank branches. The RBI has also arranged a facility for exchange at 19 of its regional offices located in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Belapur, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram.
Is a bank account mandatory for exchange?
Customers without bank accounts can also exchange/deposit Rs 2,000 banknotes with other denominations.
What are the requirements?
No identity proof is required to be submitted by the tenderer at the time of exchange. There will also be no fee for the exchange or deposit and individuals can avail of the exchange facility from May 23, 2023.
What is the upper limit?
Though one can exchange only 10 notes at once (up to a limit of Rs 20,000 at a time at any bank), there is no limit on the deposit of the notes. However, large deposit transactions will require adherence to KYC guidelines. No requisition slip is required for transactions up to 10 currency notes.
Business Correspondents (BCs) may also be allowed to exchange Rs 2,000 banknotes up to a limit of Rs 4,000 per day for an account holder. For providing deposit/exchange facility to people residing in remote/unbanked areas, banks may consider using mobile vans, if necessary.
What is the deadline for exchanging notes?
The notes will continue to be legal tender till September 30. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday said that there was no need to rush to exchange or return their Rs 2,000 notes.
"We expect most of Rs 2,000 banknotes to come back to the exchequer by September 30. We have more than adequate quantities of printed notes already available in the system, not just with RBI but with currency chests operated by banks. There is no reason to worry. We have sufficient stocks," Das said.
What are the facilities arranged by banks?
Banks have arranged special provisions to ensure hassle-free exchange of notes. Besides sheds to protect the people coming to exchange or deposit notes from sunlight, drinking water will also be arranged for the people in the queue.
There is also a complaint redress system. "For redress of grievance in case of deficiency of service, the complainant / aggrieved customer may first approach the concerned bank. If the bank does not respond within 30 days after lodging the complaint or if the complainant is not satisfied with the response/resolution given by the bank, the RBI said in a statement.
The complainant can complain to the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), 2021 at the Complaint Management System portal of RBI (cms.rbi.org.in).
What happens to deposits over Rs 50,000?
There's an income tax rule if you deposit cash above Rs 50,000 then you have to produce your PAN. So existing rules will apply
