The Reserve Bank of India is all set to issue new Rs 10 notes under the Mahatma Gandhi series, Mint reported on Thursday after the government approved the move last week.
The colour base of the new currency notes will be chocolate brown and it will bear the picture of the Sun Temple in Odisha’s Konark town. The Rs 10 note was last redesigned in 2005.
The new note may also have a numbering pattern. The central bank has already printed close to 1 billion pieces of the new note, News 18 quoted unidentified officials as saying.
The news reports about the redesign came even as the government changed the currency notes in circulation to combat attempts to counterfeit notes and promote a less-cash economy. After demonetisation in November 2016, the government introduced new Rs 2,000 notes and redesigned Rs 500 notes. The Finance Ministry told Lok Sabha that the RBI had printed 16.96 billion pieces of Rs 500 notes and 3.6 billion pieces of Rs 2,000 notes – worth Rs 15.79 trillion – as on December 8, 2017.
The central bank said in its annual report for the 2016-’17 financial year that the volume of banknotes had increased by 11.1%, primarily because of higher infusion of lower denomination notes following demonetisation. This would help check fake notes, which had increased significantly since 2008, the government argued.
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