Worrying sign: Value of fake notes up 183 per cent

Despite various measures taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to curb the menace of counterfeit notes, the value of such currencies detected by RBI offices and branches of various banks has gone up by 183.14 per cent in the last one year.

At the same time, the number of fake notes went up by 103 per cent to 3,98,111 in 2008-09 as against 1,95,811 during the corresponding period last year. There has been an increase in forging of notes of higher denominations, especially Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

In order to facilitate the examination and detection of counterfeit notes at the currency chest level itself, the apex bank has asked banks to install note sorting machines (NSMs) at bank branches.
 

COUNTERFEIT CURRENCY ON RISE
	Value (Rs)		Volume
	2007-08	2008-09	2007-08	2008-09
Rs 1000	1,01,31,000	3,18,57,000	10,131	31,857
Rs 500	3,34,19,000	10,98,69,500	66,838	2,19,739
Rs 100	1,10,27,300	1,33,31,400	110,273	1,33,314
Rs 50	4,05,950	6,39,600	8,119	12,792
Rs 20	6,860	6,820	343	341
Rs 10	1,070	680	107	68
Total	5,49,91,180	15,57,05,000	1,95,811	3,98,111
Counterfeit notes seized by police and other enforcement agencies Source:RBI

According to data released by the RBI in its annual report (2008-09), the value of fake notes detected in the year stood at Rs 15.57 crore as compared to Rs 5.49 crore last year.

The share of Rs 500-notes in the overall volume increased to 35.6 pieces per million in 2008-09 as against 12.7 pieces per million in 2007-08. Similarly, the share of counterfeit Rs 1,000 notes went up from 7.2 million pieces per million in 2007-08 to 16.6 pieces per million in 2008-09.

Out of the total fake notes detected, 3,42,281 pieces were spotted at bank branches, mainly due to increased use of NSMs.

Also, setting up of the Forged Note Vigilance Cells (FNVCs) at branches helped banks in a big way and ensured stringent level of anti-counterfeit management.

Bank branches have proved more effective in detecting counterfeits than the RBI offices. While RBI offices detected 14 per cent of the fake notes in 2008-09, the note sorting machines detected the rest.

The share of RBI has been falling over the years. It has come down from 91 per cent in 2005-06 to 56.4 per cent in 2006-07 and 32 per cent in 2007-08.