After district administration's intervention, Metro Bazar mall accepts 10 rupee coin

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued legitimate currency fails to find acceptance in Silchar and its adjacent areas. It has been happening for a while and in fact, former deputy commissioner S Lakshmanan had himself issued a public statement asking proprietors to accept 10 rupee coins.

Nothing changed. On July 11, 2019, Itkhola resident Ranu Das went for shopping at Metro Bazar mall. After picking up all the stuff he needed from several shelves he went to the counter and got his goods billed. When the cash counter executive asked for cash, Ranu Das, along with other notes gave the executive a couple of 10 rupee coins as well. According to Das, the cash counter executive refused to accept the coins and asked him to change them with notes. Das questioned the cash counter executive and asked him the reason behind rejecting the 10 rupee coins. To which, according to Das the executive responded in a rude manner and said, “Either give notes or keep all the stuff here and get lost.”

Das says, as a customer of the store he felt insulted by the executive’s behaviour and went to complain to the management. He alleges that the management supported the cash counter executive and refused to accept 10 rupee coins. That irked Das, and he immediately went to the deputy commissioner’s office and lodged an official complaint. The district administration took the complaint seriously and an assistant commissioner was sent to the mall.

The assistant commissioner, Cachar district went to the mall and questioned the management’s decision to refuse 10 rupee coins. The assistant commissioner gave the mall management a copy of the RBI order and said that all businesses must accept 10 rupee coins as they accept other RBI currencies and it is not a choice but a norm. The mall-management, putting forward their point said that the top banks in Silchar do not accept 10 rupee coins. “They say that they do not have the storage facility to store the 10 rupee coins and so we must keep them with us and deposit later. Due to this a huge number of coins get stacked at our cash counter resulting in an imbalance. So, we decided to stop accepting the coins,” said a spokesperson of the mall-management.

However, the mall-management later announced that since the district administration ordered them to accept the coins they will abide by that. At the same time, they also mentioned that the district administration must ensure that banks are willingly accepting the coins without any excuses.

On the other hand, Das had also informed his friends about the incident and there was a huge gathering at the shopping mall’s entrance. Das and his friends got into a heated argument with the mall-management and Police officials had to rush to the spot and bring the situation under control.