MUMBAI: Despite RBI claims that the newly introduced bills are more secure, currency counterfeiters seem to have found a way around it and we should brace for more fake note discoveries, a SBI report said today.
“The promise of RBI that new currency notes of Rs 200 and Rs 500 (post demonetisation) are more secure and less prone to counterfeit is not entirely correct,” SBI’s house economists said in a report released after the RBI came out with its annual report.
It said there was a “noticeable increase” in counterfeit notes detected in the denomination of new Rs 500 (up by 4,178 per cent) and Rs 2,000 (by 2,710 per cent), as per the data shared in the annual report.
It added that given the trend, “it is expected that the number of counterfeit notes in the denomination of Rs 500 (new) and Rs 2,000 may increase further and RBI/banks/public should pay more attention to that”.
The annual report said almost all the 500 and 1,000 currency notes that were made illegal on November 8, 2016 have returned to the banking system, prompting the opposition to question efficacy of demonetisation in curbing black money.
Banks received Rs 15.31 lakh crore, or 99.3 per cent, of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore worth Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in circulation on November 8, 2016, when the note ban was announced, it said.
This meant just Rs 10,720 crore of the junked currency did not return to the banking system as against initial estimates of about Rs 3 lakh crore, as they may have been stashed away illegally to avoid tax. (AGENCIES)
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