Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 21: Ending all the suspense about exchange of Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes being taken out of circulation, the State Bank of India on Sunday clarified that neither any identification nor any submission of forms would be required for depositing the high value notes in any bank starting from Monday.
The only restriction imposed in exchanging the notes would be that a person would be able to deposit a maximum of 10 notes of Rs 2,000 denomination with Rs 20,000 value at a time. But a person would be allowed to deposit as many times to deposit the notes a day as they wished, except that the customer would have to return back to the queue every time.
The SBI clarification also negates the Reserve Bank of India’s earlier claim that the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 denomination notes would help curbing black money. Since no identification would be required to submit while exchanging the notes and that the notes could be deposited either in the self-account or simply exchanged in the bank without any clarification, black money in the high value currency, if any, would automatically go back into circulation without any trace of proof.
The SBI has clarified that the facility of exchange of ₹2,000 denomination bank notes up to a limit of ₹20,000 at a time will be allowed without obtaining any requisition slip and in any bank branch anywhere in the country. Further, no identity proof is required to be submitted at the time of exchange, the SBI said in a statement.
The RBI had on Friday announced the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 denomination notes from the circulation giving the people time up to September 30 to get the notes exchanged in the banks. The bank said existing notes in circulation can either be deposited in bank accounts or exchanged by September 30 beginning Monday. The banknotes in ₹2,000 denomination will continue to be a legal tender, the RBI had said in a statement.
In order to ensure operational convenience and to avoid disruption of regular activities of bank branches, the RBI said exchange of ₹2,000 bank notes into banknotes of other denominations can be made up to a limit of ₹20,000 at a time at any bank. The RBI had also advised banks to stop issuing ₹2,000 denomination banknotes with immediate effect.
Besides, the facility for the exchange of ₹2,000 bank notes up to the limit of ₹20,000 at a time will be provided at the 19 Regional Offices (ROs) of the RBI having issue departments from May 23.
The clarification comes amid alleged misinformation on social media that a form would need to be filled out, along with submitting identity documents like an Aadhaar card, in order to exchange the banned notes.
Government sources said people can exchange ₹ 2,000 rupee notes up to ₹ 20,000 any number of times in a day. A person has to stand in a queue, and they can keep coming back and stand in the same queue after exchanging the money, they said. There is no restriction on standing in the queue again after exchanging or depositing the notes once.
The SBI also clarified that it was not necessary for a person to be a customer of the bank to exchange soon-to-be-discontinued currency. A non-account holder can exchange ₹ 2,000 banknotes up to a limit of ₹ 20,000 at a time at any bank branch.
The RBI clarified that people don’t have to pay any fee to avail of the exchange facility. Further, banks have been instructed to make arrangements to reduce inconvenience for senior citizens and persons with disabilities who wish to exchange or deposit ₹ 2,000 banknotes.
“About 89 per cent of the ₹ 2,000 denomination banknotes were issued prior to March 2017 and are at the end of their estimated lifespan of four-five years. The total value of these banknotes in circulation declined from ₹ 6.73 lakh crore at its peak as on March 31, 2018 (37.3 per cent of notes in circulation) to ₹ 3.62 lakh crore constituting only 10.8 per cent of notes in circulation on March 31, 2023,” the RBI said.
With regard to deposit of such notes in own account, RBI has not specified any limit but it will be subject to compliance with extant Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and other applicable statutory requirements.
