The Centre on Friday told Parliament that it has decided to print currency notes made of plastic to curb counterfeiting. In a written reply to a question filed in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance AR Meghwal said the central government has already initiated the process to procure the materials necessary for printing such notes, PTI reported.
Meghwal later said that it is easier to keep track of counterfeited currency made of plastic. Successive governments have discussed and tested the use of such notes, which are made of plastic based on a polymer substrate. In February 2014, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government told Parliament that one billion Rs 10 notes had been introduced in five cities – Bhubhaneshwar, Jaipur, Kochi, Mysore and Shimla – as part of a field trial. Plastic notes have an expected life span of five years.
The decision comes as the country continues to grapple with a cash crunch caused by the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. It has been reported that the new Rs 2,000 note has been counterfeited as well. The first case of a counterfeit Rs 2,000 note surfaced on November 13 when a vegetable vendor in Chikmagaluru, Karnataka, was given a fake note.
On November 26, a special operation team busted a fake currency racket and arrested six members of the gang in Ibrahimpatnam, around 35 km from Hyderabad. The sleuths seized original notes worth Rs 50,000, two photocopy machines, and 105 fake notes, including that of the new Rs 2,000 currency.
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