Yogesh Mishra
Raipur, May 14: With circulation of large number of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) in the market and their frequent detection in places including banks, petrol pumps and various bill counters, the innocent citizens feel that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should quickly come up with some effective measures which could protect them from being victimised by the banks and police if the notes they possess would prove counterfeit.
In this connection, the RBI has sent a proposal to the Centre urging that the customers found in possession of less than five pieces of fake notes while depositing money in banks should not be considered as FICN trafficker and no FIR should be lodged against them. However, the Centre is still mulling over the proposal.
Notably, a number of innocent customers are being harassed by the police and the bankers when they are found having counterfeit notes inadvertently. These customers are being asked to prove their innocence by informing the source from where they got the fake notes, i.e. either by producing withdrawal slip, ATM receipt or name of the person from whom they received counterfeit notes.
The RBI’s officer-incharge at Raipur Nirmal Chand admits that majority of the people do know how to distinguish between a genuine note and the fake one. “Usually, the innocent people become conduit for circulation of fake notes when they deposit them in bank or any other business counter,” he said.
“The RBI has suggested to the Centre that the banks must adopt ‘cassette swap' system to feed notes in ATMs to minimise manual involvement in currency handling at the ATMs and cash dispensing machines. The banks must also periodically audit the ATMs and processes of the companies to which their ATM services are outsourced, he said.
Arun Kumar, an assistant manager at RBI, says that the bankers should follow the current guidelines according to which after finding fake notes from any unsuspecting customer, they should impound such notes, send them to RBI and provide acknowledgement to the customer. “The banks already keep identity proof and other necessary documents of their regular customers, hence they should be allowed to go. In case of non-customers, banks can ask them to submit their detailed information including identity proof and other documents,” he said.
“The banks frequently come across fake currency notes, but instead of destroying and sending them to the RBI, some of the bankers return them to the customers merely by tearing them. However, when the inflow of such counterfeit notes is noticed repeatedly from any particular customer, the bankers inform about him to the police,” said another RBI official on anonymity.
“The RBI says to ensure that fake notes are promptly detected as soon as they enter into the banking channel. It has also directed the banks to ensure that the ATMs and other outlets for currency distribution may not dispense soiled or fake notes,” said B Chandrashekhar, senior manager at State Bank of India’s (SBI) zonal office.
He however admitted that the security features have to be constantly upgraded and people should be educated about methods to detect a fake note.
“Following RBI instructions, we check fake currencies in three different stages. We impart regular training our employees owing to which they can detect fake notes just by feeling them,” said RP Sharma, another senior manager at SBI zonal office.
When asked why the banks do not compensate the innocent customers when the fake notes obtained from them are cancelled, Sharma said there was no such provision in RBI guideline.
When pointed that in many cases customers get counterfeit notes from ATMs but banks do not take any action against their guilty ‘experienced staff’ who never commit mistake, Sharma said, “Humans are fallible and so are the bankers. However, if any particular employee is found guilty twice for either ignoring fake notes at deposit counter or putting them in ATM twice, the banks order departmental inquiry into them.”
No comments:
Post a Comment