RBI refutes rumours that scribbled notes won't be accepted from January 1

Mumbai: Dismissing rumours on social media, the Reserve Bank said all notes including those with scribbling will continue to be legal.

"As I understand, one of the topics trending on WhatsApp is the statement that at the end of the year notes with writing will not be accepted. This is absolutely false. Those notes continue to be a legal tender," RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said in an audio message.

"RBI has had the policy in the past of disfigured note being withdrawn from circulation to be replaced by clean notes. That does not mean that they are not legal tender, they can be used everywhere, they can be accepted everywhere. There is no terminal date for acceptance, so please disregard those rumours, they are not correct," he said.

Image being shared on social media claiming that banks would stop accepting soiled notes

RBI denied having issued a communication circulating on the social media alerting members of public that banks will not accept currency notes with scribbling on them from January 1, 2016.

All currency notes issued by it are legal tender and banks and members can freely and without fear accept them in exchange for good and services, RBI said in a statement.

RBI also stated that in pursuance of its clean note policy, it keeps requesting banks and members of public not to write on the currency notes it defaces them and reduces their life.