Forget notes, Rs 1,000 coins get Parliament nod

Forty-one days after the ‘lowly’ 25-paise coin ceased to be a legal tender, the country sensed the prospect of transacting metallic tokens of Rs 1,000. Parliament gave its nod to this proposal as the Rajya Sabha too passed the Coinage Bill, 2009, that scaled the denomination limit for payment by an individual through coins up to Rs 1,000.

Behind the idea — suggested by the Reserve Bank of India — is convenience in monetary transactions. The Lok Sabha had in March passed the Bill without discussion.

Tuhrsday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, replying to a debate on the Bill, said its passage would mean insertion of a provision to mint Rs 1,000 coins. He did not say when they could be introduced. He agreed that counterfeit notes were a matter of concern and threat. While it was a battle the government has been fighting continuously, “some countries” were using it as a potential tool to destablise the Indian economy, he said, without naming neighbouring Pakistan.

“Sometimes it is used as a policy matter. I do not want to use the names of the country. Everybody is aware of their objective,” he said. India has for long been grappling with fake currency printed from across the Western front and getting routed through the porous Nepal border.

Mukherjee said such moves as the 25-paise coin (called ‘chavvanni upcountry’) — withdrawn on June 30 — were part of an economic evolution.