The government said it had put in adequate systems in place to manage the changeover process for people who would need to exchange their Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes for the new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2,000 notes to be issued from Thursday.
Control rooms“We have alerted the state chief secretaries and Director Generals of Police across the country along with banks,” said Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das. “Control rooms are being set up in Mumbai and Delhi to deal with issues that arise. They will be functional from 8 am on Wednesday,” he said, adding that several operational guidelines will be issued in the next few days.
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RBI deputy governor R. Gandhi said that special arrangements would be made by banks to allow people to exchange their old notes. In this period, electronic transactions and payments by cheque and other instruments linked to bank accounts would be allowed to continue as usual. Mr Das said that the situation will be reviewed after November 24 and other denomination currencies will also be issued over time, including the Rs 1000 note that would not be replaced with a new note immediately.
“The Rs. 1,000 note was introduced in 2000-01 so the real value of money had gone down due to inflation in the past 15 years,” Mr. Das said, explaining the rationale for introducing a Rs. 2,000 note. The new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 notes are Braille compliant, he added.