RBI receiving complaints against banks for not accepting coins: Govt

The government on Tuesday said there have been complaints against banks that they do not accept coins for transactions at their branches.

"The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has informed that it has been receiving general complaints from the public against banks for non-accepting coins," Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

However, there are no specific complaints that have been received against any bank, the minister added.

Also, the RBI has already advised the banks to accept coins for transactions and exchange at all their branches.

Shukla further said that the RBI's regional offices (ROs) have been instructed to advise controllers of banks in their jurisdiction to accept coins at all their branches.

RBI's ROs have also been advised to open counters to accept coins from public, he said.

In a separate reply to a related question, another Minister of State for Finance Pon Radhakrishnan said the legal tender validity of coins are defined under section 6 of the Indian Coinage Act, 2011 and the RBI has advised the public to continue to accept the rupees 10 coins as legal tender in all their transactions without any hesitation.

The minister was responding to a query why even after more than a year after demonetisation, public sector banks were still refusing to accept coins and what actions government took on clarifying on legal validity of coins.