Bengal districts decline to accept new Re 1 coins

In at least four districts in West Bengal, shops and general people are refusing to accept Re one coin in transaction, putting the authorities in a quandary.

In Nadia and Murshidabad district, the non-acceptance of the Re one coin has become a "problem of sort", the authorities of the two districts have said.

In Bankura and Hooghly districts the problem has eased to a some extent in the last seven days after the district administrations appealed to the people to accept the coin as it remained a valid legal tender, district officials said.

People in these districts said that the problem was only with the smaller shining variety of the Re one coin, and not with the older variety.

RBI officials attributed the problem to the reluctance on the part of some bank branches in these districts to accept Re one coin for storage constraints - a fallout of the abundance in supply of coins in the system.

They told PTI that all banks were flush with coins in the post-demonetisation period.

"There is a provison for accepting upto Rs 1,000 in coins by a bank and after that they can refuse," an RBI official points out.

"We are asking the banks to accept the Re one coins, but you see we cannot issue any diktat," he explained.

The RBI recently announced that soon Re one notes would be put in circulation.

-PTI