Stapled notes still in vogue

The Reserve Bank of India may be going all out to ensure that banks do not staple notes under its clean note policy and has discontinued accepting stapled notes, but several central government departments have written to banks requesting them to issue stapled notes.

The office of the principal director of audit of Indian audit and accounts department under the ministry of home affairs, in a letter to the branch manager of B B D Bagh branch of State Bank of India has written that, "...in this connection it is stated that this office being a central government office receives bulk amount of payment and it is practically impossible to count each and every unstapled bundles on the cash counter at the time of receiving payments.

"In this circumstance I would request you to look into the matter and if possible kindly arrange to issue staple bundle notes at least on the salary payment day of this office when payment of about 50 lakh (5 million) are being received from your payment counter." A copy of the letter is available with Business Standard.

Government undertakings such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Central Industrial Security Force and Regional Pay and Accounts Office have also made similar requests to respective bankers.

"This seems to be a clear violation of the RBI directive of not issuing any stapled notes to any customers," Ashok Datta, convenor of United Forum of Bank Unions, said.

"Most of these offices receive bulk payment from their respective bankers which run into a few crores and it is not possible for them to count each and every bundle at the counter, adding to the complexities," he explained.

"Although a few banks in a bid to comply with RBI guidelines on note stapling have recently started binding notes only with strings, it has its own problems with signatures on clerks on it. A couple of notes can always be removed from a bundle of 100 notes when it is tied up with a string," he said.

"For bundles that are all wrapped up with either paper or cellotape their is the problem of not being able to count the number of notes without opening the bundle, after which if there is a shortage in number of notes, no one at the counter will be willing to take responsibility," he said. "This problem is even acute for large payments," he added.

Banking unions also claimed that organisations such as BSNL and CESC Ltd continue to deposit stapled bundles in banks.