The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday issued a circular to the banks asking them to take steps to ensure atleast 40 per cent of the bank notes are supplied to the rural areas.
The main reason behind taking this decision is that the current supply of banks notes to rural areas was not meeting the requirements of rural population, as stated by the RBI.
“Banks should advise their currency chests to step up issuance of fresh notes to rural branches of RRBs, DCCBs and commercial banks, White Label ATMs in rural areas and post offices in rural areas on priority basis which are considered main rural channels of distribution,” RBI said in a circular.
Here are a few highlights of the circular issued by Reserve Bank of India:
- Issue fresh notes to rural branches
- Certain percentage of allocation assigned to each district for need-based approach
- All currency chests would have to follow indicated proportion
- Asks currency chests to issue notes of Rs 500 and below
- Issue notes below Rs 100 denomination liberally
- Get coins and ensure supply to the public
(Feature image source: Reuters)