As the Reserve Bank of India has announced recently about its plan to withdraw the currency notes that are issued before 2005, the situation is turning quite weird for common man. Financial experts throughout the nation believe that this move could essentially remove fake currency embedded into the financial system and would also help in uncovering the black money market in the nation. The initiative that RBI has taken is definitely good, but this motive of RBI has raised question among common people about the already existing notes they have.
After March 31, 2014, the RBI will completely withdraw all currency notes (10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 rupee notes) that are issues before 2005.
This sudden decision, taken by RBI has put common people in pressure. Here, we come with guidelines for you to understand and identify notes that are published before 2005. At present the RBI prints the currency notes in the denomination of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000. Notes that are printed before the year 2005 do not have the year of printing, printed on it. However, all the currency notes that are printed post 2005, have the year of printing clearly printed on it in the middle of the bottom row on the backside of the note. In case, if you are having a note, that has no year of printing printed on it, this means the note is issued before 2005 and you need to exchange those notes post March 31st, 2014. Notes of all denomination with year of printing printed on it would stay in operation, as they are circulated post 2005.
As RBI has clearly notified that notes issued before 2005 will stay in circulation till the end of this fiscal year, hence there is little time in hand before you need to exchange the notes. Your bank is responsible to exchange the currency notes for you, the same rule applies even for the non customers. The deadline for notes exchange without curb is till July 01, 2014. Post this deadline, whenever any non-customer comes to a bank for currency notes exchange for more than 10 pieces of 500 and 100 notes, he / she will have to show his proof of identity as well as his residence proof to the branch manager of that particular branch.
It is quite understandable that questions have risen among common people after this declaration made by RBI. However, if you have such notes that are issues before 2005, you can approach any bank for the exchange of your currency notes. From April 1, 2014, you should not accept such notes from others and get your notes exchanged form the nearest branch of any bank without any fees charged for such exchange of notes.
Behind such a move that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have taken, experts are indicating several possible reasons amidst that. The first and foremost reason for the withdrawal of the old currency notes is more to do with streamlining the number of currency variants than anything else. In addition, the government of India is also highly concerned about the inflow of the fake currency notes that are being circulated randomly. Withdraw of the pre-2005 notes could somewhat prevent the circulation of the fake currency notes as the recently printed notes are technically superior.
