Fake currency with Rs 136.43 crore face value seized in three years

To stay ahead of counterfeiters, the government recently introduced revised numbering pattern in all denominations

More than 27.31 lakh pieces of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), with face value of Rs 136.43 crore, were seized in three years through 2014, Parliament was informed today.

Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha said that in order to stay ahead of the counterfeiters, the government has recently introduced revised numbering pattern in all denominations.

Besides, the government, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has initiated the process of procurement of upgraded/new security features for a fresh series of bank notes.

Sinha informed that a FICN Coordination Group has been formed in the Ministry of Home Affairs to share intelligence/ information amongst different security agencies to deal with the menace of circulation of fake currency notes in the country.

As per the details given by him on FICN, more than 15.54 lakh notes were recovered in 2012, 2013 and 2014 having face value of about Rs 77.58 crore. Also, 11.77 lakh notes were seized during the three years having face value of Rs 58.84 crore.

Meanwhile, 2,091.8 crore pieces of bank notes of various denominations valuing Rs 31.99 lakh crore were supplied to the RBI during 2013-14 fiscal.

To another question, Sinha said the RBI is in the process of setting up a Central Fraud Registry which will be a searchable centralised database for frauds.

"This would provide banks with the capability to search the database based on the entity's name and also allow generation of bank-wise reports for MIS purpose," he added.