In a sudden volte face following a huge public outcry, the State Bank of India, the country’s biggest bank, on Sunday withdrew its decision on the mandatory filling of a slip for exchange of Rs. 2,000 bank notes at its branches.
“In partial modification of instructions, it has been decided that the facility of exchange of Rs. 2,000 denomination bank notes to all members of the public up to limit of Rs. 20,000 at a time will be allowed without obtaining any requisition slip as per the format attached in Annuxure III,” said a letter by SBI Chief General Manager (Operations) S. Muralidharan.
“Further, no identity proof is required to be submitted by the tenderer at the time of exchange,” the letter issued to SBI branches said. “Hence, Annexure III which is attached to E-Circular dated 19.05.2023 stands withdrawn immediately. There is no change in other instruments given in the E-Circular,” it added.
On Friday, the same SBI office had issued a letter saying, “Deposit of Rs. 2,000 banknotes into accounts maintained with our bank will be allowed in the usual manner, that is, without restrictions and subject to compliance with extant Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and other applicable statutory requirements.” SBI’s KYC norms require a requisition slip and identity proofs.
“The branches are also advised to comply with Cash Transaction Reporting (CT) and Suspicious Transaction Reporting (STR) requirements, where applicable,” it had stated. There shall not be any limit on the quantity and value of the Rs. 2,000 denomination notes to be credited into the account maintained with the bank, it had said.
The Reserve Bank of India had not issued any instructions to banks to collect identity proofs of tenderers swapping the Rs. 2,000 notes. Sources also say that the condition had been withdrawn following the intervention of the Finance Ministry after the public hue and cry. It is likely that no other bank will ask for slip or proofs.
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