RBI advises caution against fake Rs500 and Rs1,000 bank notes
27 Oct 2016
With a surge in the influx of counterfeit currency into the system, especially of larger denominations of Rs500 and Rs1,000, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked the public to make sure that the bank notes they accept are genuine in all transactions in the usual course.
''It has come to our notice that unscrupulous elements are putting into circulation Fake Indian Currency Notes of higher denominations in the course of normal transactions, taking advantage of the gullible and unsuspecting nature of some members of the public.
''We hereby caution the public to subject notes that are accepted to careful scrutiny. Genuine Indian Currency Notes of higher denominations have strong counterfeit-resistant security features. The fake notes can be identified on closer inspection.
Detailed information on the security features on the banknotes are available on our website, https://paisaboltahai.rbi.org.in/, and the public may familiarise themselves with these features and educate others also. Members of public are requested to make it a habit of looking at the notes before accepting them in the usual course of daily transactions and help arrest the counterfeiting of Indian banknotes,'' RBI stated in a release.
RBI also cautioned the public that like counterfeiting of notes, possession, exchange, acceptance, putting into circulation of counterfeit notes or in any way abetting such actions are also offences under the Indian Penal Code and such actions are liable to be punished stringently.
RBI said it is considering additional identity requirements for the use of Indian banknotes in large numbers. It has sought cooperation of the public and public authorities in containing the menace of circulation of counterfeit notes.
RBI has detected 632,926 counterfeit notes in the banking system in 2015-16, against 594,446 pieces in the previous year.
Of the total number of counterfeit currency notes, 41 per cent were of Rs500 denomination 35 per cent of Rs100 denomination and 23 per cent of Rs1,000 denomination.
