Mumbai: To improve the quality of currency notes in the country, the Reserve Bank came out with a draft guideline for mechanical detection of notes unfit for circulation and replacing them with new ones on Wednesday.
While prescribing parameters for declaring a currency note unfit for circulation, the guideline said that soiled notes would have to be identified by cash handling machines being used by the banks.
These cash handling machines, it added, would have to be of minimum prescribed standard to detect soiled notes in addition to checking their authenticity.
These guidelines will not apply for counterfeit notes, the RBI said, adding, "fitness sorting can only be done in case of genuine notes."
The cash handling machines, it added, "Shall be able to identify and separate suspected counterfeits and notes which are unfit for circulation in terms of these standards in a reliable and consistent fashion."
Besides crumpled and stained notes, those having graffiti (deliberate graphic alteration of figures or letters) would be treated as unfit, said the guideline on which the RBI has invited comments from the public by January 6.
As per the draft guideline, currency notes which have large holes, stains, graffiti etc. would be treated as unfit for circulation and replaced by new ones.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, December 23, 2009, 21:11