As per Section 26 of Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the Bank is liable to pay the value of banknote. This is payable on demand by RBI, being the issuer.

The promissory clause printed on the banknotes i.e., "I promise to pay the bearer the sum of Rupees …” denotes the obligation on the part of the Bank towards the holder of the bank note.

Ans.: Companies, who have inward FDI along with foreign technical collaboration (FTC) agreements can participate in this survey.

Ans:  The reporting entities should follow the below-mentioned points for filling and submitting the survey schedule:

i. The company must use the latest survey schedule, which is in .xls format, without incorporating any macros.

ii. The company is required to save the survey schedule in Excel 97-2003 workbook, i.e., in .xls format by following the below-mentioned steps:

1. Go to Office Button / File → Save As → Save As type

2. Select “Excel 97-2003 Workbook” and Save the survey schedule in .xls format.

iii. The company is requested not to incorporate any macro in the survey schedule while submitting the same.

iv. Survey schedule submitted in any other format (other than .xls format) will be rejected by the system.

v. Ensure that all information furnished in the survey schedule are complete and no information is missed out.

vi. After filling required details, the responding entities have to fill the declaration present in the survey schedule, which helps in validating that the information entered by the entity are reconfirmed before submission to RBI. This helps to avoid data entry errors, missed data and other errors.

If companies that are required to be registered with the Reserve Bank as NBFCs, are found to be conducting non-banking financial activity, such as, lending, investment or deposit acceptance as their principal business, without obtaining Certificate of Registration from the Reserve Bank, the same would be treated as contravention of the provisions of the RBI Act, 1934 and would invite penal action viz., penalty or fine or even prosecution in a Court of Law. If members of public come across any entity which undertakes non-banking financial activity but does not figure in the list of authorized NBFCs on the Reserve Bank’s website, they should inform the nearest Regional Office of the Reserve Bank, for appropriate action to be taken for contravention of the provisions of the RBI Act, 1934.

The statutory provisions governing issuance of bank notes and coins currently in force are the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and the Coinage Act, 2011. Provisions of these Acts do not refer to any standard value of rupee/ coin. The earlier statutes relating to paper currency and coins have been repealed.

Further, in terms of section 26 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, every bank note shall be legal tender at any place in India in payment or on account for the amount expressed therein and shall be guaranteed by the Central Government.

Besides, refund of value of a banknote shall be determined and done in accordance with the Reserve Bank of India (Note Refund) Rules, 2009 [As amended by Reserve Bank of India (Note Refund) Amendment Rules, 2018] read with the “Master Directions on Facility for Exchange of Notes and Coins” as issued from time to time by the Reserve Bank of India.

Clarification: Foreign banks with less than 20 branches are not allowed to buy PSLC General for achieving their 8% target of lending to sectors other than exports. However, such banks are allowed to buy PSLC Agriculture, PSLC Micro Enterprises and PSLC Small and Marginal Farmer for the same.

Ans: Based on the feedback received from banks and taking into account the disruptions caused by COVID-19, it has been decided to extend the time available for deployment of funds under the TLTRO 2.0 scheme from 30 working days to 45 working days from the date of the operation. Funds that are not deployed within this extended time frame will be charged interest at the prevailing policy repo rate plus 200 bps for the number of days such funds remain un-deployed. The incremental interest liability will have to be paid along with regular interest at the time of maturity.

Ans: If an entity has received only share application money and does not have any foreign direct investment or overseas direct investment outstanding as on end-March of the latest FY, it is not required to fill the FLA return.

Banknotes in India are currently being issued in the denomination of ₹10, ₹20, ₹50, ₹100 ₹200, ₹500, and ₹2000*. These notes are called banknotes as they are issued by the Reserve Bank of India. The printing of notes in the denominations of ₹2 and ₹5 has been discontinued and these denominations have been coinised as the cost of printing and servicing these banknotes was not commensurate with their life. However, such banknotes issued earlier can still be found in circulation and these banknotes continue to be legal tender. ₹1 notes are issued by the Government of India from time to time and such notes including those issued in the past also continue to be legal tender for transactions.

*₹2000 denomination notes continue to be legal tender. For more details, please refer to our press release 2023-2024/851 dated September 01, 2023 (https://rbi.org.in/web/rbi/-/press-releases/withdrawal-of-%E2%82%B92000-denomination-banknotes-status-56301).

Ans.: In case the company does not have any FTC during the survey reference period, then they have to submit the survey schedule of FCS survey by filling Part I and II of the form.

Ans: A consolidated data at the entity level, covering all the branches/offices in India, should be furnished.

The list of registered NBFCs is available on the web site of Reserve Bank (Home - Reserve Bank of India) under ‘Regulation → Non-Banking’. Further, the Directions issued to NBFCs from time to time are hosted on the Reserve Bank’s website under ‘Notifications’, and some instructions are issued through Official Gazette notifications and press releases as well.

Clarification: A bank can purchase PSLCs as per its requirements. Further, a bank is permitted to issue PSLCs upto 50 percent of previous year’s PSL achievement without having the underlying in its books. This is applicable category-wise. The net position of PSLCs (PSLC Buy – PSLC Sell) has to be considered while reporting the quarterly and annual priority sector returns. However, with regard to ascertaining the underlying assets, as on March 31st, the bank must have met the priority sector target by way of the sum of outstanding priority sector portfolio and net of PSLCs issued and purchased.

Clarification: The misclassifications, if any, will have to be reduced from the achievement of PSLC seller bank only. There will be no risk for the PSLC buyer, even if the underlying asset of the traded PSLC gets misclassified.

Clarification: There will be a real time settlement of the matched premium. Accordingly, the respective current accounts of the participating banks with RBI will be debited/ credited to the extent of the matched premium.

Clarification: The trading platform will match the buy and sell offer by following the Rule of Lowest Sale offer to the Buy offer and then within that on FIFO basis. For example, a buyer offered to pay 2% premium for a particular PSLC type and the same is available at 1.5%, 1.8% and 2%, the portal will first match with the sale deal at 1.5% and for any leftover units, it will then match with the sale offers of 1.8% and then 2% in that order, provided the buy offer is first in the queue (based on the timing of the placement of the buy offer).

Clarification: The order matching will be done on anonymous basis through the portal and the buyer/seller cannot select the counterparty. Partial matching will happen depending on the matching of premium and availability of category-wise PSLC lots for sale and purchase.

Clarification: The normal trading hours shall be from 10 AM to 4:30 PM. The PSLC market operates on all days except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays declared under The Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 by the Government of Maharashtra.

Clarification: Paras 22, 23 and 24 of the Master Directions on Priority Sector Lending, 2025 permit banks to classify as PSL their lending to NBFCs including HFCs and NBFC-MFIs and other MFIs (Societies, Trusts etc.) which are members of RBI recognised SRO for the sector, for on-lending to eligible priority sectors. Banks may adopt a uniform methodology for PSL classification of on-lending as follows:

a) Classification under PSL:

• The banks can classify on-lending to eligible entities in the respective categories of PSL. The classification will be allowed only when the entity has disbursed the Priority Sector Loans to the ultimate beneficiary after receiving the funds from the bank and the funds remain deployed in PSL assets.

• The entities must provide auditors’ certificate to the banks stating that the individual loans of the portfolio, against which on-lending benefit is being claimed, are not being used to claim benefit from any other bank(s). Also, they must put in place a suitable process to flag such loan(s) in their systems to enable internal/statutory auditors as well as RBI supervisors (in case of NBFCs) to verify the same.

b) Information sharing:

• The banks may devise internal control mechanisms to ensure that the portfolio under on-lending is PSL compliant. The following information/record, at the very minimum, should be collected by the bank from the eligible entities:

name of the beneficiary, amount sanctioned, loan amount outstanding, loan tenure, disbursement date, category of PSL.

Clarification: Bank lending to NBFCs (other than MFIs) and HFCs is subject to a cap of 5% of average PSL achievement of the four quarters of the previous financial year. In case of a new bank the cap shall be applicable on an on-going basis during its first year of operations. The prescribed cap is not applicable for bank lending to NBFC-MFIs and other MFIs (Societies, Trusts, etc.) which are members of RBI recognised ‘Self-Regulatory Organisation’ of the sector. Bank lending to such MFIs can be classified under different categories of PSL in accordance with conditions specified in the Master Directions on Priority Sector Lending, 2025.

Clarification: While the guidelines allow sharing of risks and rewards between the bank and the NBFC for ensuring appropriate alignment of respective business objectives, the priority sector assets on the bank’s books should at all times be without recourse to the NBFC.

Clarification: Only if the bank can exercise its discretion regarding taking into its books the loans originated by NBFC as per the agreement, the arrangement will be akin to a direct assignment transaction. If the Agreement entails a prior, irrevocable commitment on the part of the bank to take into its books its share of the individual loans as originated by the NBFC, it shall not be akin to direct assignment transaction.

Clarification: Both entities, the bank and the NBFC, shall be guided by the bilateral Master Agreement entered by them for implementing the Co-lending Model (CLM). The agreement may specify any cap on the number and amount of loans that can be originated by the NBFC under the Co-lending model.