Four out of 1000 currency notes are fake: White Paper

Bangalore: The government's first attempt to find out the counterfeiting of notes in the country reveals an off- the- record report which says Out of thousand currency notes, 4 notes are fake. The group of Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the Central Bureau of Investigation has made the study about how the fake currency notes have affected the credibility of the rupee as legal tender. The copy of this report was submitted to the government in the month of June. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) discloses that fake bank notes in circulation are about 0.0004-0.0012 percent. This indicates that four in every one million currency notes are counterfeited which is lower than the white paper estimate. The central bank has no estimates of the fake currency notes being circulated in the country. The banking regulator is not sentient about the subsistence of white paper on the subject. However, RBI declared that Indian bank notes are secured. The report, which is not within the public sphere, mentions that Pakistan government officials are openly involved in creating and allocating a large number of fake notes in India. This represents high threat to Indian economy. But the Pakistan high commission at Delhi refused to give any comments on the subject. The White Paper report also revealed that in the year 2010, fake notes was brought to India from abroad, ranging from 1500 to 1700 Crore. Around 3,200 Crore was the amount lost due to counterfeiting. The amount of fake notes in circulation is a cause for concern. The report also includes that the incident of fake notes in India is very much higher when compared to the other countries. Restraining of fake currency in India is very important as the RBI is facing serious circumstances like fighting against inflation and striving to increase the money supply in the country. India's exposure to fake notes was highlighted in the 2011by International Narcotics Control Strategy Report which was arranged by the U.S. state department. The paper used for manufacturing fake notes is made of cotton rag and a security thread is interleaved that it duplicates many refined features of the original currency note which makes the detecting of fake currency almost impossible. Counterfeiting of notes is equal to terror financing and the government has approached the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), U.S. and other countries by sharing the report for fighting against such acts of terrorism.