Apparent discrepancies in the new Rs 500 notes issued by the Reserve Bank of India have led to concerns that this will help in the production of counterfeit notes, The Times of India reported on Friday. Different designs were spotted on some of the new notes, while others varied in colour.
The RBI has, however, said both the variants are legal tender. RBI Spokesperson Alpana Killawala told TOI, “It is likely that notes with printing defects have got released owing to the current rush. However, people can freely accept such a note in transaction or return it to the RBI.”
A Delhi resident told the English daily that the note he got had “visible shadow on Gandhiji’s face”, while a Gurugram resident noticed that the size of the borders on the notes were different.
Counterfeit notes were one of the problems the government had said it was tackling when it demonetised the old Rs 500, Rs 1,000 currency notes. The country has been facing a severe cash crunch since.
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