7 new security features to check fake currency

By NewsGram Staff Writer

A new numbering system and seven new security features will be incorporated in all currency notes, especially in high denomination Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes, in order to check the menace of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN).

The Bhartiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Pvt Limited (BRBNMPL) and Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL) have initiated steps for introduction of the revised number pattern, official sources said.

As per latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Gujarat tops the list of five Indian states that are considered the "safest" for circulating counterfeit currency notes – allegedly pushed in by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

The Reserve Bank of India has also asked the banks to stamp fake notes detected over the counter as "COUNTERFEIT NOTE" and impound them immediately. Banks found not following the procedure will be penalised. They have also been instructed to issue a receipt for counterfeit notes to the tenderer of the FICN, they said.

Police officers monitoring the circulation of fake notes suspect that the ISI is pushing such notes in India which have a greater resemblance to India's high denomination Rs.1,000 and Rs.500 notes. The officers said that they have been noticing for the past few months that differences between genuine and counterfeit notes were reducing and that around five such differences have actually disappeared.

Malaysia, Thailand and Oman, frequented by Indians, have emerged as the new centres for stocking FICN and then circulating it across India, the sources said.

(with inputs from IANS)