Over 164 cr pieces of pre-2005 rupee notes shredded

Over 164 crore pieces of pre-2005 currency notes of various denominations, including Rs 1,000, were shredded in regional offices of Reserve Bank in 13-month period ending January 2015, Parliament was informed today.
In January last year, the RBI had announced it would withdraw from circulation all pre-2005 series notes and the public was advised to approach banks to exchange such notes.
The deadline to exchange such notes has been extended to June 30, 2015.
"The withdrawal exercise is in conformity with the standard international practice of not having multiple series of notes in circulation at the same time," Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply.

The face value of the shredded currency notes was about Rs 21,750 crore.
As per the details given in Parliament, 86.87 crore pieces of Rs 100, 56.19 crore pieces of Rs 500 and 21.75 crore pieces of Rs 1,000 were shredded in regional offices of RBI.

Post-2005 notes have been provided with added security features to help curb the menace of fake currency.
To another question, Sinha said 32 complaints related to counterfeit notes given through ATMs were received from different states during 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Instructions have been issued to banks that notes of Rs 100 and above should be re-issued by banks over their counters or through ATMs only after the currencies are duly checked for authentication and fitness by machines.