In a move to increase the usage of plastic currency in India, the government has given a go-ahead to the Reserve Bank of India to conduct trials of plastic notes of Rs 10 in five cities.
“Approval for procurement of plastic substrate and printing of bank notes of Rs 10 denomination on plastic banknote substrates has been conveyed to the RBI,” said Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Finance.
This is not the first time such an announcement has been made, in fact previous government had also said it will introduce plastic currency. In 2014, UPA had informed the Parliament that one billion plastic notes of Rs. 10 denomination will be brought into use on a trail basis.
The reasons for initiating plastic currency are that they last longer and at the same time reduce the chances of fake currency
The five cities that are being chosen for the trials are Bhubaneshwar, Jaipur, Kochi, Mysore and Shimla. The cities are picked due to their geographical diversity.
Few days back, some ATMs in New Delhi and Haryana were dispensing fake currency with notes bearing Children Bank of India stamp. As the menace caused by fake notes is a major concern, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, the junior Finance Minister said, “The responsibility of ensuring the quality and genuineness of cash loaded at ATMs is that of the sponsor bank,”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, 2016 in an unexpected announcement banned the old Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currency notes from the economy and 50-day period was given to citizens in order to exchange old currency notes.
