By IANS,
Mumbai : India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Thursday said Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes featuring old designs will be phased out, though no timeframe has been set.
These notes from the 1996 and 2000 series will be replaced with new ones with additional security features, RBI spokesperson Alpana Kilawala said.
“This is nothing unusual, it’s a regular exercise. Central banks all over the world keep introducing notes with higher security features,” she said.
Kilawala said the exercise was not on account of any fake currency note problem.
The Rs.500 notes were introduced in 1996 and the Rs.1,000 two years later.
The currency notes from the lots of these two years would be taken out of circulation in a phased manner without causing any inconvenience to the people, she said, adding no timeframe has been set.
“It all depends on when these notes are deposited in the banks,” she said. She denied that tehse notes were being devalued by the RBI and stressed that they continue to be valid legal tender.