RBI to issue plastic notes soon | Fusion - WeRIndia

Will Indians get plastic currency?

Is there any plan to change the material to print the existing currency? RBI says yes to these questions.

The Reserve Bank of India is going to issue plastic currency notes soon.

Yesterday the Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal stated in written reply to a question asked in Lok Sabha about whether the currency notes will be changed to plastic instead of paper notes.

He revealed that the central bank is procuring material as it has been decided to issue plastic notes in the future. The notes will be printed using plastic or polymer substrate.

The RBI has been planning to introduce plastic currency for many years in the country after a field trial. The central government informed Parliament in February 2014 that the currency notes would be issued in five cities initially to test them out.

These five cities are Mysore, Kochi, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneshwar. The RBI was informed to print one billion currency notes of ₹10 denomination to test and understand how they would fit in various climatic and geographic conditions. Plastic currency has its own merits and demerits.

They appear fine. Plastic notes are more polished than paper currency. Moreover, they are difficult to imitate. However, they have a limited span of five years.

Hence, the government said the RBI to test them on a trial basis.

Plastic notes were first introduced in Australia to combat forged notes.

Reserve Bank of India informed Meghwal that some of the ₹1,000 notes they received in 2015 did not have the safety thread.

These currency notes were printed at Currency Note Press (CNP), Nashik and the paper was supplied by Security Paper Mill (SPM), Hoshangabad.

Hence, Security Printing and Minting Corporation (SPMCIL) started a probe to enquire the issues and the units involved (SPM and CNP).

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