The ATM has significantly reduced the workload on banks. Now, people rely on ATMs for cash withdrawal. However, sometimes mutilated notes come out from the machine and due to unawareness people bear the loss. Well, if you too face this situation, you do not need to worry as you can get these notes exchanged at bank. The bank cannot refuse to exchange these mutilated or soiled notes. In this article, we will tell you how you can easily exchange mutilated notes from ATM.
What are mutilated or soiled notes?
According to RBI, A note which has become limp or which has developed minor cuts due to wear and tear or which is disfigured by oil; color, ink, etc. will be treated as soiled note. To facilitate easy exchange, notes which have been divided vertically through or near the center with numbers intact are also treated as soiled notes. Notes on which political or religious slogans are written are not exchangeable under any circumstances.
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On the other hand, a mutilated note is a note of which a portion is missing or a note which is composed of pieces, provided that the note presented is not less than half of the area of the note and that, if the note is composed of a note joined together, each piece is, in the opinion of the ‘Prescribed Officer’ [as defined in the RBI (Note Refund) Rules] identifiable as part of the same note.
RBI’s circular on mutilated or soiled notes:
According to the Reserve Bank of India, banks will have to replace mutilated currency notes from ATMs. Neither a government bank nor a private bank can refuse to exchange these notes. The Reserve Bank of India had said in the guideline issued in 2017 that all banks will exchange mutilated or soiled notes in every branch without any problem.
In its circular, RBI said that if the bank refuses to exchange soiled or mutilated notes withdrawn from ATMs, then it can be punished and a fine of 10 thousand rupees can be imposed. These rules of RBI are applicable to both public and private banks.
How to exchange these notes?
To exchange these currency notes, you have to go to the bank in whose ATM you have withdrawn damaged notes. You will have to write an application in this regard. In this application, you have to tell the date, time etc. Of the money withdrawn from the ATM. Apart from this, you will have to present the slip drawn from the ATM. If there is no slip, the message of debited money will have to be shown on your phone.
Moreover, you can also exchange such notes directly from RBI offices. The facilities are provided at the counters of the RBI’s Regional Offices located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Belapur (Navi Mumbai), Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram.
If the concerned banks are denying to exchange these notes, then you can file a complaint on the online grievance portal of the concerned bank with requisite details.