Fake Rs 200 notes on the rise; 151% jump in detection in FY20

According to RBI’s annual report for 2019-20, counterfeit notes detected in the denominations of Rs 500 denomination has also jumped 37.5% in 2019-20; however, the number of fake currency notes found in Rs 2,000 denomination has fallen 22.1%.

Business Desk, ETV Bharat:Despite the central bank’s repeated efforts to keep the menace of fake currency in check, a huge number of forged noted were found circulating in the Indian economy in 2019-20.

According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) Annual Report for 2019-20, the Rs 200 denomination (Mahatma Gandhi new series) has seen a whopping 151% increase in fake notes.

Counterfeit notes detected in the denominations of Rs 500 denomination has also jumped 37.5% in 2019-20. However, the number of fake currency notes found in Rs 2,000 denomination has fallen 22.1%.

To recall, the Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 denominations were launched just after demonetization in November 2016 with added security features in order to make it difficult for counterfeiters to copy the design and circulate fake variants. The new notes for denominations of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50, Rs 100 and Rs 200 were added subsequently in the system in later years with similar features.

Despite that, RBI reported that over 11.6 lakh fake Indian currency notes were found circulating in the economy worth over Rs 24 lakh in 2019-20. Out of the total fake notes, 4.6% were detected at RBI and 95.4% by other banks.

Interestingly, the Rs 10 denomination saw the highest number of counterfeit notes, jumping nearly 145% from a year ago and constituting 26% of total fake currency notes detected.

Counterfeit notes detected in the denominations of Rs 20 and Rs 100, meanwhile, declined 37.7% and 23.7%, respectively, in 2019-20.

The RBI report also mentioned that the currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination were not printed in 2019-2020. The circulation of these notes has declined over the years, with number of Rs 2,000 notes constituting 2.4% of the total volume of notes at end-March 2020, down from 3% at end-March 2019 and 3.3% at end-March 2018.