The Reserve Bank of India has said it is considering use of plastic to make currency notes, replacing paper which has a shorter life.
"The bank is deliberating upon the option of bringing in plastic currency which can be a mixture of paper, plastic and cotton," RBI Deputy General Manager (Chandigarh) Daljit Singh said in Chandigarh.
The main objective behind this exercise is to deal with the problem of soiled notes particularly in small denomination.
"We have observed that the paper currency notes up to Rs 10 have a very small life up to 4-5 months and they do get soiled quite fast," Singh said.
RBI will also take into consideration the experience of countries like Australia and New Zealand that are using plastic currency at the moment,
he said. Under the initiative to handle the issue of early mutilation of currency notes, RBI also plans to launch coin in the denomination of Rs 10, Singh said.
RBI, under its 'Clean Note Policy', has also launched an effort to segregate soiled notes with good ones at its four printing machines.
"Under this exercise, soiled notes are separated out of the other paper currency and these defaced notes are then shredded at the printing presses," RBI Regional Director J Sadakkadulla said.
RBI presently has four printing presses at Nasik in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Mysore in Karnataka.
Asked whether customers can replace soiled notes, Sadakkadulla said that RBI had instructed public and private banks to accept and replace soiled notes.